Walton Martin

Walton Martin. [Born] 1869. Surgeon.

The medical art as now practiced, the necessary character of the physician as now understood, both date for us from Hippocrates. The high concept of the duties and status of the physician, divorced from the mysticism of a priesthood and the pretensions of a mercenary craft, the singular artistic skill with which the Hippocratic physician uses the materials and tools he possesses, his understanding that the processes of disease and the processes of health are equally governed by natural laws, and that, only by minute observation and accurate interpretation, can the physician succeed—all come to the modem physician from Hippocrates, who, even in the age of Pericles, was called “The Great.” And in that Golden Age Hippocrates was as complete a representative of the highest efforts of the Greek mind and spirit as were his great contemporaries, the philosophers, orators and tragedians.

Dr. Walton Martin was that kind of medical representative in his own time. He was exceptional as a human being and in his profession, and in both aspects touched the heights.

His remarkably handsome features and entire bearing reflected the instinctive kindliness of his nature and his tolerant understanding of men. Cultivated and learned, always responsive and friendly—to be with him was a delight, and his widely read familiarity with the Classics and literature in general made conversation with him unfailingly interesting and stimulating.

As a surgeon he was meticulous and his operative skill was supreme, but even more he excelled in his philosophical approach to the problems of surgery, and made valuable contributions to the understanding of the principles underlying the processes of infection and wound repair, and their practical management.

In his later years, he was looked upon as the Nestor and philosopher of the surgical group in New York and in the American Surgical Association.

Nothing was foreign to his mind and heart. A relaxation which he carried on at his beautiful Italianate country home in Connecticut was the keeping of bees, and he enjoyed observing and discussing the social organization and habits of these dwellers in his hives. Pottery and wine-making and the binding and tooling of books delighted his skilled hands. His understanding of poetry was deep and of his nature.

Beloved by his students and assistants, to whom he was a kindly and inspiring instructor, and deeply respected by his colleagues for his wisdom and skill, he was adored by his patients, [who] found in him the very personification of the great physician, which, indeed, he was.

His friends have lost a friend who can never be replaced, and the Century one of its rarest members.

Source: Henry Allen Moe Papers, Mss.B.M722. Reproduced by permission of American Philosophical Society Library & Museum, Philadelphia

Henry Allen Moe
Henry Allen Moe Papers, 1949 Memorials