Page 301

“…the Quai Voltaire…”

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

“…Hospital St. Antoine…”

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

“…a bladder poking through a fistula…”

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

“…in Jobert’s surgical theatre…”

SIMS, J. Marion, (1885). The Story of my Life, ed. by H. Marion-Sims. D. Appleton & Co: New York, pp. 313-14.

“…created a furor…”

See “…a bladder poking through a fistula…,” above.

“…the duchess now arranged the approval needed…”

One of a number of documents revealing that Sims’s official notice of approval came through the Duchess of Hamilton, and arrived in June 1863—that is, on the eve of his meeting with Napoleon III. As will be seen, Sims had already been operating on royalty in France for some time. Translations of these documents reveal that Sims’s approval had to overcome some initial objections in France, making it even more likely that he would not have been permitted to operate on Empress Eugenie for mysterious gynecological conditions (see “…the pretext of treating the empress…,” above).

This document is held in the Southern Historical Collection at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill libraries.

“…he could charge thousands…”

A letter from Sims to Samuel Gross, quoted in Gross’s autobiography but probably dating from the 1870s, reveals Sims’s mindset about money, what he was charging per surgery, and what he believed he could count on as annual income.

Gross, S. D., Gross, S. W., Viets, H. R., & Gross, A. H. (1887). Autobiography of Samuel D. Gross, M.D: D.C.L. Oxon., LL. D. Cantab., Edin., Jeff. Coll., Univ. Pa., emeritus professor of surgery in the Jefferson Medical College of Philadelphia: with sketches of his contemporaries. Philadelphia: G. Barrie, Vol. 2, pp. 151-52.

“…introduced to ‘Malakoff’…”

Again, Sims’s seizes the opportunity to attach himself to a newspaperman—he does not indicate how he made this acquaintance, but it seems like that an introduction would have come through Henri Stuart.

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

“…Johnston’s accounts of the siege of Sebastopol…”

“A Famous Correspondent,” the Otautau Standard and Wallace County Chronicle (New Zealand), March 26, 1907, p. 6.

“…the scoundrel Orsini.”

“A Famous Correspondent,” the Otautau Standard and Wallace County Chronicle (New Zealand), March 26, 1907, p. 6.

“…amputation of his tongue…”

The New York Times, March 17, 1854.

“…his eyeball was expelled…”

The New York Times, March 17, 1854.

“…as a Barnum-like figure.”

Harris, S. (1950). Woman's surgeon: The life story of J. Marion Sims. New York: Macmillan, p. 215.

“Compared to Mary Booth…”

See “She took a room in his house…,” above.

“She had never written a word…”

See “…noted the significance…” and “…beds and services for women…,” above.