Page 297

“…the woman died.”

SIMS, J. Marion, (1885). The Story of my Life, ed. by H. Marion-Sims. D. Appleton & Co: New York, p. 311.

“An autopsy left no doubt…”

SIMS, J. Marion, (1885). The Story of my Life, ed. by H. Marion-Sims. D. Appleton & Co: New York, p. 312.

“…no record would be kept…”

This is inferred from the fact that exhaustive efforts had been made to find out more about the case, or even to confirm that Sims had operated at the Samaritan. Nothing was found—and I think the Moire statement in the quoted material, from a hundred years later, speaks to a troubling tendency among doctors to cover one another’s tracks.

“J. Marion Sims’s European Experiences,” C. Lee Buxton, Obstetrics and Gynecology, Vol. 22, No. 4, October 1963, pp. 544-545.

“…a series of operations that Sims witnessed…”

Unsurprisingly, Sims’s autobiography makes no mention of the fact that Sims visited Brown’s hospital, witnessed clitoridectomy surgeries, and, as will be documented later, performed one himself.

“Suburban Hospitals or ‘Homes,’” British Medical Journal, February 8, 1862, Vol. 1, p. 161.

“…there were already objections to his surgery…”

Brown, I. B. (1866). On the curability of certain forms of insanity, epilepsy, catalepsy, and hysteria in females. London: Hardwicke, pp. 9-10.

“…stodgy old physicians.”

Here, I am more or less summarizing the tone of Brown’s entire book.

Brown, I. B. (1866). On the curability of certain forms of insanity, epilepsy, catalepsy, and hysteria in females. London: Hardwicke, p. vi.

“…frightful hemorrhage…”

Brown, I. B. (1866). On the curability of certain forms of insanity, epilepsy, catalepsy, and hysteria in females. London: Hardwicke, p. 63.

“…taught to masturbate…”

Brown, I. B. (1866). On the curability of certain forms of insanity, epilepsy, catalepsy, and hysteria in females. London: Hardwicke, pp. 51-52.

“…woman from Newcastle upon Tyne…”

Brown, I. B. (1866). On the curability of certain forms of insanity, epilepsy, catalepsy, and hysteria in females. London: Hardwicke, pp. 53-54.

“…threatened suicide to every stranger…”

Brown, I. B. (1866). On the curability of certain forms of insanity, epilepsy, catalepsy, and hysteria in females. London: Hardwicke, pp. 70-71.

“…the most eccentric of characters…”

The original puts emphasis on “never had an offer of marriage.” I did not think I could recreate that without appearing to have strayed into the ridiculous.

Brown, I. B. (1866). On the curability of certain forms of insanity, epilepsy, catalepsy, and hysteria in females. London: Hardwicke, p. 72.

“All were cured…”

Like Sims, Brown for the most part claimed perfect cures, or failures that were in the service of cures. Here, he also reveals what Sims also gave voice to—that doctors thought of themselves not only as tending to patients’ bodies, but also as advisers to their moral lives.

Brown, I. B. (1866). On the curability of certain forms of insanity, epilepsy, catalepsy, and hysteria in females. London: Hardwicke, p. 75.