Page 138
“…the sheer number of experiments…”
See “…thirty experiments,” above.
In various accounts, Sims claimed that Anarcha was experimented on thirty times, twenty times, and, in one publication, as many times as Lucy and Betsey. Most historians have accepted the figure of thirty, and it’s the story Sims told most frequently—along with the detail that Anarcha was experimented on more than the others. I’ve suggested earlier in the book (see “She lost count…,” above) that Anarcha was targeted for more experiments because she had two fistulae. My suggestion here is consistent with that.
“…his inability to reach deep enough inside…”
SIMS, J. Marion, (1885). The Story of my Life, ed. by H. Marion-Sims. D. Appleton & Co: New York, p. 243.
“…scarlet fever in Mobile…”
Horsman, R. (1987). Josiah Nott of Mobile: Southerner, physician, and racial theorist. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, p. 159.
“…a meningitis attack…”
See “Dr. Silas Ames…,” above.
“…reddish pulp and lobes of pus…”
“Some Account of an Epidemic Cerebro-Spinal Meningitis, which Prevailed in Montgomery, Ala., in the Winter and Spring of 1848,” Silas Ames, p. 4.
“…speculative treatments…”
“Some Account of an Epidemic Cerebro-Spinal Meningitis, which Prevailed in Montgomery, Ala., in the Winter and Spring of 1848,” Silas Ames, pp. 55-56, 27.
“…contracted ship fever…”
See “…the man had typhus,” above.
“…the young slave caring for him…”
The full paragraph in which Sims names Anarcha—the only time her name appears in his handwriting—is telling for a number of reasons. The paragraph is about a number of doctors in Montgomery (Baldwin, Jones, Ames, etc.) at a time of illness, and he is writing to Jarvis after Jarvis has left Montgomery and is on his way home. He tells Jarvis that “Mr. King” is at the Hall (after referring to those he is more informal with by their last names alone), but that King will likely get well because “Anarca, our Anarca,” is caring for him. The underscoring is Sims’s. I believe the first instance of Anarcha’s name indicates that she is the same female “servant” whom Jarvis had singled out for praise during his own convalescence at the Hall. The addition of “our Anarca,” suggests not only some affection from Sims, but that both he and Jarvis stand in more or less the same relation to her. That is, they both know what it is like to have been cared for by Anarcha (see “…water when he asked for it…,” above). That Sims does not now need to explain this suggests that he already had discussed it, during Jarvis’s time in Montgomery.
Sims’s private letters to the family of George O. Jarvis, and subsequently to Jarvis himself, are held at the Hartford Medical Society Collections in Hartford, Connecticut.
“…a case of consumption…”
See “…a terrible cough…,” above.
“…the rampant chatter about King…”
See “..Miss Nancy and Aunt Fancy…,” above.