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“…physicians and medical students.”

Harris, S. (1950). Woman's surgeon: The life story of J. Marion Sims. New York: Macmillan, p. 290.

“…new proliferation of cancer cases…”

Davis, G. T. M. (1891). Autobiography of the late Col. Geo. T.M. Davis: Captain and aid-de-camp Scott's army of invasion (Mexico), from posthumous papers. Pub. by his legal representatives. New York: Press of Jenkins and McCowan, p. 374.

“…hallways stuffed with physicians…”

From the minutes of the June 7, 1872, meeting of the Woman’s Hospital Medical Board, held at the Arthur H. Aufses, Jr. Medical Archives and Mount Sinai Records office at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City, New York.

“…more than seventy observers…”

EMMET T. A., PEASLEE, E.R, THOMAS, T.G. (1877). Reply to Dr. J. Marion Sims’s Pamphlet, Entitled ‘The Woman’s Hosptial in 1874,’ by His Colleagues, New York: Trow’s Printing and Bookbinding, p. 6.

McGregor, D. K., & McGregor, D. K. (1998). From midwives to medicine: The birth of American gynecology, p. 193.

“…attendees risked suffocation…”

Davis, G. T. M. (1891). Autobiography of the late Col. Geo. T.M. Davis: Captain and aid-de-camp Scott's army of invasion (Mexico), from posthumous papers. Pub. by his legal representatives. New York: Press of Jenkins and McCowan, p. 374.

“…lightning-quick finesse…”

Harris, S. (1950). Woman's surgeon: The life story of J. Marion Sims. New York: Macmillan, p. 162.

Emmet, T. A., & Woman's Hospital (New York, N.Y.). (1893). Reminiscences of the founders of the Woman's Hospital Association. New York: Stuyvesant Press, p. 7. First printed in the New York Journal of Gynaecology and Obstetrics.

“…as a dedicated fistula clinic…”

This summary draws from a range of sources, and makes a degree of inference based on the fact that the Board of Lady Managers was working to prevent cancer cases from being admitted to the hospital, and was working to put a cap on the number of visitors at individual surgeries. Sims had initially described a specialized hospital to the managers (see “…the precise purpose of Woman’s Hospital” and “…a larger version of his backyard clinic…,” above), and the mission had begun to creep almost as soon as Woman’s Hospital opened (see “…perform the operation anyway…,” above). Nevertheless, many years later, Catherine and Reginald Hamlin of the Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital in Ethiopia, would honor Woman’s Hospital as the first dedicated fistula clinic in the world, as is described in this book’s afterword.

McGregor, D. K., & McGregor, D. K. (1998). From midwives to medicine: The birth of American gynecology, p. 193.

“…the summer of 1873…”

McGregor, D. K., & McGregor, D. K. (1998). From midwives to medicine: The birth of American gynecology, p. 193.

“…out a fourth-floor window.”

McGregor, D. K., & McGregor, D. K. (1998). From midwives to medicine: The birth of American gynecology, p. 192.

“…a full-time pathologist…”

From the April 1972 report of the Board of Lady Supervisors. The report is held at the Arthur H. Aufses, Jr. Medical Archives and Mount Sinai Records office at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City, New York.

“…a book to keep careful record of deaths.”

From the minutes of the December 24, 1873, meeting of the Board of Lady Supervisors. The minutes are held at the Arthur H. Aufses, Jr. Medical Archives and Mount Sinai Records office at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City, New York.

“…all of their duties.”

McGregor, D. K., & McGregor, D. K. (1998). From midwives to medicine: The birth of American gynecology, p. 192.

“…a fibroid tumor…”

“On Intra-Uterine Fibroids,” J. Marion Sims, New York Medical Journal, Vol. 19, No. 4, April 1874, p. 350.

“…broke the mass…”

I have significantly simplified the description.

“On Intra-Uterine Fibroids,” J. Marion Sims, New York Medical Journal, Vol. 19, No. 4, April 1874, pp. 350-51.

“The stench was unbearable.”

“On Intra-Uterine Fibroids,” J. Marion Sims, New York Medical Journal, Vol. 19, No. 4, April 1874, p. 350.

“…fever of 106…”

As horrible as this case sounds, I have condensed the account significantly.

“On Intra-Uterine Fibroids,” J. Marion Sims, New York Medical Journal, Vol. 19, No. 4, April 1874, p. 352.

“…where inmates took their meals…”

I encountered no account in any description of either site of Woman’s Hospital of anything like a commissary or cafeteria. In the fistula clinics I visited in Ethiopia, Uganda, and Nigeria, it was common for patients to take food from carts wheeled directly through the ward.

“…killed more than it cured.”

McGregor, D. K., & McGregor, D. K. (1998). From midwives to medicine: The birth of American gynecology, p. 197.