Page 188
“…written out his plans in full.”
SIMS, J. Marion, (1885). The Story of my Life, ed. by H. Marion-Sims. D. Appleton & Co: New York, pp. 272-73.
“…Sims had acquired unseen enemies…”
SIMS, J. Marion, (1885). The Story of my Life, ed. by H. Marion-Sims. D. Appleton & Co: New York, p. 273.
“…a comet again poked through the ceiling…”
See “…the nick of a comet…,” above.
“…the birth of the savior…”
The Natchez Daily Courier (Natchez, MS), October 28, 1853, p. 4.
“…she was perhaps six.”
See “Catherine had known Sims…,” above.
“…a fiendish thought.”
See “…Portland, Connecticut…,” above.
Sims thoughts here are speculative, but in keeping with what’s in the record. As described later, Sims will experiment on Anarcha again at Woman’s Hospital in 1857, just a few months before he will repeat the claim that she was fully cured in 1849. It’s already the case that Anarcha is threatening the narrative that is supposed to save his life—it’s highly likely that he would recognize that he would have been better off had she died at Norwalk.
“…a distressing letter arrived.”
See “…to write a letter to Dr. Sims,” above.
“…Sims’s famous patient.”
No such letter to Gibson survives, but it is highly likely that Sims contacted Gibson in this time. As will be seen, Gibson wrote to Sims in Paris about prosthetic devices for the many amputees that accumulated during the Civil War, and Gibson also documented a fistula case he was working on in 1853—a fistula of seven years’ standing, which aligns perfectly with Anarcha’s case.