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“…knowledge of astronomy…”
Nott, J.C. (1849). Two lectures on the connection between the Biblical and physical history of man: Delivered by invitation, from the chair of political economy, etc., of the Louisiana University, in December 1848, pp. 7, 14.
“…of a common origin?”
Nott, J.C. (1849). Two lectures on the connection between the Biblical and physical history of man: Delivered by invitation, from the chair of political economy, etc., of the Louisiana University, in December 1848, p. 30.
“…the parent stock…”
Nott, J.C. (1849). Two lectures on the connection between the Biblical and physical history of man: Delivered by invitation, from the chair of political economy, etc., of the Louisiana University, in December 1848, p. 37.
“…the will of the Creator.”
Nott, J.C. (1849). Two lectures on the connection between the Biblical and physical history of man: Delivered by invitation, from the chair of political economy, etc., of the Louisiana University, in December 1848, p. 14.
“…but by mosquitoes…”
It’s a slight exaggeration to say that Nott discovered that mosquitoes were the vector (though you can see the claim made in many places), but in any event he was—in this case—on the right track.
Horsman, R. (1987). Josiah Nott of Mobile: Southerner, physician, and racial theorist. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, p. 147.
“…Mobile’s Can’t Get Away Club…”
Horsman, R. (1987). Josiah Nott of Mobile: Southerner, physician, and racial theorist. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, p. 153.
“…powdered with lime like snow…”
Horsman, R. (1987). Josiah Nott of Mobile: Southerner, physician, and racial theorist. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, p. 162.
“…five hundred perished…”
Horsman, R. (1987). Josiah Nott of Mobile: Southerner, physician, and racial theorist. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, p. 153.
“…Rush arrived at Sims’s office…”
Sims’s autobiography provided the more detailed version of this episode.
SIMS, J. Marion, (1885). The Story of my Life, ed. by H. Marion-Sims. D. Appleton & Co: New York, p. 242.
Sims, J. M., & New York Academy of Medicine. (1858). Silver sutures in surgery. New York: S.S. & W. Wood, p. 54.
“He’d recently lost a patient…”
Hyoscyamus is a plant in the nightshade family.
“Some Account of an Epidemic Cerebro-Spinal Meningitis, which Prevailed in Montgomery, Ala., in the Winter and Spring of 1848,” Silas Ames, pp. 27-28.
“…a serious word.”
I have strayed pretty far from Sims’s autobiography here—including introducing narrative details not included in the original. The as-told-to quality of Sims’s book betrays a Southern linguistic habit of putting what is in actuality summarized speech inside of quotations marks, as though it’s a firm record of what was said. I don’t think that’s what is meant, and based on this I took license in re-calibrating the tone and content of Rush’s speech. In addition, Sims does not ever say that part of what was controversial about the Alabama fistula experiments was the very fact of his having eventually relied on Anarcha, Lucy, Betsey, and the others for assistance. I think this conclusion is unavoidable, however. What would have played well for a Northern audience would have irked the sensibilities of Southerners, and Southerners at the time were quick to punish white people who showed too much kindness to enslaved people, or afforded them too much freedom, or provided them with too many skills.
SIMS, J. Marion, (1885). The Story of my Life, ed. by H. Marion-Sims. D. Appleton & Co: New York, p. 242.