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“…there was coldness and derision…”

“Reminiscences of Dr. J. Marion Sims in Paris,” Edmond Souchon, Medical Record, Vol. 46, No. 23, December 8, 1894, p. 706.

“…to procure a case…”

I have elaborated on Souchon’s original, slightly, as Sims might have written it. Notably, however, Sims left all mention of his struggle to procure an appropriate fistula case out of his autobiography.

“Reminiscences of Dr. J. Marion Sims in Paris,” Edmond Souchon, Medical Record, Vol. 46, No. 23, December 8, 1894, p. 706.

“I’ll get him one…”

“Reminiscences of Dr. J. Marion Sims in Paris,” Edmond Souchon, Medical Record, Vol. 46, No. 23, December 8, 1894, p. 706.

“…imposing on doctors…”

“Reminiscences of Dr. J. Marion Sims in Paris,” Edmond Souchon, Medical Record, Vol. 46, No. 23, December 8, 1894, p. 706.

“Anticipating a spectacle…”

“Reminiscences of Dr. J. Marion Sims in Paris,” Edmond Souchon, Medical Record, Vol. 46, No. 23, December 8, 1894, p. 706.

“…Sims first demonstrated his surgery…”

See “…the speech itself was an experiment…,” above.

Souchon doesn’t not state that the woman was already positioned in the room, but she had to be either there prior to the surgery, or wheeled in afterward, which might have been even more disturbing.

“Reminiscences of Dr. J. Marion Sims in Paris,” Edmond Souchon, Medical Record, Vol. 46, No. 23, December 8, 1894, p. 706.

“…translated Sims’s speech nervously.”

“Reminiscences of Dr. J. Marion Sims in Paris,” Edmond Souchon, Medical Record, Vol. 46, No. 23, December 8, 1894, p. 706.

“…the case was an easy one…”

Sims makes no comment other than that the case was easily cured; given his propensity for emphasizing and even exaggerating when a case was difficult, it’s safe to assume that this case was relatively simple. No account mentions an anesthetic having been used.

SIMS, J. Marion, (1885). The Story of my Life, ed. by H. Marion-Sims. D. Appleton & Co: New York, p. 313.

“…tended to the woman every morning.”

“Reminiscences of Dr. J. Marion Sims in Paris,” Edmond Souchon, Medical Record, Vol. 46, No. 23, December 8, 1894, p. 706.

“On the ninth day…”

“Reminiscences of Dr. J. Marion Sims in Paris,” Edmond Souchon, Medical Record, Vol. 46, No. 23, December 8, 1894, p. 706.

“…the joyous crowd…”

“Reminiscences of Dr. J. Marion Sims in Paris,” Edmond Souchon, Medical Record, Vol. 46, No. 23, December 8, 1894, p. 706.