Page 133

“…further punctures and prizings.”

“Further Observations on Trismus Nascentium, With Cases Illustrating its Etiology and Treatment,” J. Marion Sims, The American Journal of the Medical Sciences, October 1848.

Oddly, while I was able to find this article, I was not able to obtain a version that included page numbers.

“It died at dawn…”

“Further Observations on Trismus Nascentium, With Cases Illustrating its Etiology and Treatment,” J. Marion Sims, The American Journal of the Medical Sciences, October 1848.

Oddly, while I was able to find this article, I was not able to obtain a version that included page numbers.

“Sims took the baby’s body…”

Sims does not otherwise explain how he was able to perform an extensive autopsy on the infant.

“Further Observations on Trismus Nascentium, With Cases Illustrating its Etiology and Treatment,” J. Marion Sims, The American Journal of the Medical Sciences, October 1848.

Oddly, while I was able to find this article, I was not able to obtain a version that included page numbers.

“He published two more papers…”

Arguably, Sims’s subsequent writings on infant lockjaw were a single paper, the halves of which were published months apart.

“The future would judge him…”

It certainly would.

Sims was completely wrong about trismus nascentium. The true cause of the disease—very much in line with Baldwin’s thinking—was uncovered shortly after Sims died, more or less right when his claim on this point was published.

SIMS, J. Marion, (1885). The Story of my Life, ed. by H. Marion-Sims. D. Appleton & Co: New York, p. 206.

“…a cure that promised a profit…”

This is part of my ongoing interpretation of Sims’s true motives. As I’ve suggested above (See “The full scope of the opportunity…,” above), I believe Sims to have been largely duplicitous in regard to his motives in seeking to cure fistula. In his autobiography, Sims allowed that he had no altruistic motive in establishing Woman’s Hospital, and tries to claim that he came to New York simply for his health. I don’t doubt that Sims was in poor health, but the truth is that he traveled broadly when he was said to be largely debilitated, and continued on with an expansive medical career at the same time. What seems clear is that Sims played up his illness to craft it into a narrative that cast him as a saint, struck down by illness for having executed a divine plan on Earth. I find this to be implausible, and what is far more likely, given his financial situation (see “…R.G. Dun credit investigators…,” above) and the vicissitudes of his marriage (see “…that his wife expected and deserved…,” above), is that Sims would have been desperate to find a way to not only remain solvent, but pursue wealth. After all, this is what in fact happened.

SIMS, J. Marion, (1885). The Story of my Life, ed. by H. Marion-Sims. D. Appleton & Co: New York, p. 270.

“In June 1847…”

Independent Monitor (Tuscaloosa, AL), June 22, 1847, p. 3.

“…attended the Autauga County wedding…”

There is no direct evidence that Sims attended Nathan Harris’s wedding, but Montgomery was a small city at the time, and Sims was already in business with Harris. Harris was primarily a lawyer, but used the “Dr.” appellation, and as will be described later, a portion of his work was dedicated to medical jurisprudence. A document in the Harris estate materials, held at the Montgomery County Archives in Montgomery, Alabama, shows that Harris once represented Sims in case against Alex McKenzie. I surmise from this that Sims would have been a likely invitee to the wedding.

In addition, Harris’s official wedding notice, included in the wedding records of the probate office of Autauga County, Alabama, in Prattville, Alabama, includes Sims’s brother-in-law, B.R. Jones, as one of its witnesses.

“…marrying Margaret Duncan…”

The Duncan genealogy chart was given to me by a member of the Duncan family.

“…had known the Duncan family…”

Catherine Emmet (nee Duncan) will go on to marry Sims’s assistant in New York, Thomas Addis Emmet, and the Emmet-Dunan marriage helps to explain how Anarcha moved from Alabama to Richmond, as will be described later in the book. In acknowledging that he knew Catherine from when she was a young girl, Sims is admitting that he knew the family from his earliest Alabama days.

“Editorial Interview with Dr. J. Marion Sims,” St. Louis Clinical Record, Vol. 4, No. 6, September 1877, p. 156.

SIMS, J. Marion, (1885). The Story of my Life, ed. by H. Marion-Sims. D. Appleton & Co: New York, p. 207.

The Duncan genealogy chart was given to me by a member of the Duncan family.

“…whose romance had begun…”

See “…the great frolic…,” above.

The Montgomery Advertiser (Montgomery, AL), January 19, 1936.

“…the grandest soirees…”

A description of parties at Violet Hill.

The Southern Signal (Prattville, AL), February 22, 1878, p. 3.

“…private racetrack…”

The Montgomery Advertiser (Montgomery, AL), July 9, 1922, p. 4.

“…marble stepping stones…”

The Montgomery Advertiser (Montgomery, AL), July 22, 1922, p. 4.

“…hothouses with chimneys…”

The Montgomery Advertiser (Montgomery, AL), January 9, 1911, p. 13; July 22, 1922, p. 4.