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“The woman in the first case had died…”

“Utero-gastrotomy,” J. Marion Sims, The Medical Record, Vol. 10, 1875, p. 108.

“…had lost a great deal of blood.”

“Utero-gastrotomy,” J. Marion Sims, The Medical Record, Vol. 10, 1875, p. 108.

“…he sensed a looseness…”

I am granting Sims the foresight of knowing she would die; elsewhere, he claimed a patient died the night before.

“Utero-gastrotomy,” J. Marion Sims, The Medical Record, Vol. 10, 1875, p. 108.

“…lay dying at the hospital.”

“Editorial Interview with Dr. J. Marion Sims: A Full Exposition of the Points in the Controversy between Drs. Peaslee, Emmet, and Thomas, and Dr. Sims,” The St. Louis Clinical Record, Vol. 4, No. 6, September 1877, p. 160.

“…the fashionable European surgery.”

I found no account of Sims’s again attempting this procedure.

“Utero-gastrotomy,” J. Marion Sims, The Medical Record, Vol. 10, 1875, p. 108.

“…the pithy metaphors…”

See “…galaxy of surgical talent…,” above.

EMMET T. A., PEASLEE, E.R, THOMAS, T.G. (1877). Reply to Dr. J. Marion Sims’s Pamphlet, Entitled ‘The Woman’s Hospital in 1874,’ by His Colleagues, New York: Trow’s Printing and Bookbinding, p. 18.

“…despite the rot…”

Sims’s speech at the gala, as he reported it, speaks to the simmering tensions—though his tone, at the start, is admittedly more cordial. His anger comes out later in the speech, and is documented below.

Sims, J. M. (1877). The Woman's Hospital in 1874: A reply to the printed circular of Drs. E.R. Peaslee, T.A. Emmet, and T. Gaillard Thomas, addressed "To the medical profession," "May 5th, 1877". New York: Kent & Co., p. 13.

“…he ought not speak at all.”

From a desperate letter Sims’s wrote to Davis, after his resignation had been accepted it. Davis quotes the letter in full.

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. 373.

“An hour before Sims and Theresa…”

Sims, J. M. (1877). The Woman's Hospital in 1874: A reply to the printed circular of Drs. E.R. Peaslee, T.A. Emmet, and T. Gaillard Thomas, addressed "To the medical profession," "May 5th, 1877". New York: Kent & Co., p. 15.

“…adjusting his remarks…”

Sims’s speech was not saved, though he did claim to have recreated it verbatim in the pamphlet he published several years later. His colleagues said that important parts of the speech had been omitted.

Sims, J. M. (1877). The Woman's Hospital in 1874: A reply to the printed circular of Drs. E.R. Peaslee, T.A. Emmet, and T. Gaillard Thomas, addressed "To the medical profession," "May 5th, 1877". New York: Kent & Co., pp. 16-17.

“…the ground floor of the hospital…”

Although documents show that wards were used for annual meetings, there is no record of exact preparations, so I am taking a little license in describing what steps they likely would have taken.

From the minutes of the November 1868, meeting of the Board of Lady Supervisors, held at the Arthur H. Aufses, Jr. Medical Archives and Mount Sinai Records office at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City, New York.