Page 88

“…Sims and Theresa sold their home…”

SIMS, J. Marion, (1885). The Story of my Life, ed. by H. Marion-Sims. D. Appleton & Co: New York, p. 193.

“…Sims’s father and sisters…”

See “…Theresa’s brother Rush—and her mother…,” above. Sims was never particularly precise about where in Alabama his father lived, and how long he stayed—he later went to Mississippi, and died in Texas—but later documents from the probate office in Butler County, Alabama, reveal that a number of Sims’s relatives had relocated there.

“…the settlement of Cubahatchee…”

That Sims is closer to Abercrombie and Zimmerman is inferred from the fact that Abercrombie made up a large portion of his business at this time, and Zimmerman complained when Sims left Cubahatchee for Montgomery. Zimmerman would prove to be Lucy’s owner.

SIMS, J. Marion, (1885). The Story of my Life, ed. by H. Marion-Sims. D. Appleton & Co: New York, p. 193.

“…an idle year on horseback…”

SIMS, J. Marion, (1885). The Story of my Life, ed. by H. Marion-Sims. D. Appleton & Co: New York, p. 193.

“…a dollar for tooth extractions…”

Holley, H. L., & Waters, A. L. (1982). The history of medicine in alabama. Birmingham: University of Alabama Press, pp. 37-38.

“…to take legal action…”

Details of this minor legal squabble are on microfiche at the Alabama Department of Archives and History in Montgomery, Alabama.

“…a doctor named Toland…”

Sims’s familiarity with Toland’s methods is related by William O. Baldwin in a eulogy reprinted in Sims’s autobiography.

SIMS, J. Marion, (1885). The Story of my Life, ed. by H. Marion-Sims. D. Appleton & Co: New York, p. 427.

Harris, S. (1950). Woman's surgeon: The life story of J. Marion Sims. New York: Macmillan, p. 73.

“…curing every case…”

Sims’s tendency toward self-aggrandizement is on display here, as Toland, in South Carolina, was well before him, and actually his inspiration in the procedures.

SIMS, J. Marion, (1885). The Story of my Life, ed. by H. Marion-Sims. D. Appleton & Co: New York, p. 193.

Harris, S. (1950). Woman's surgeon: The life story of J. Marion Sims. New York: Macmillan, p. 74.

“One day, Rush called him…”

Sims provides conflicting accounts of the incident, and later was forced to retract his claim that this particular innovation was his. “B.R. Jones” is Rush Jones, Sims’s brother-in-law.

“Extraction of Foreign Bodies from the Meatus Auditorius External,” J. Marion Sims, American Journal of the Medical Sciences, Vol. 9, 1845, p. 340.

“Extraction of Foreign Bodies from the Ear,” J. Marion Sims, British Medical Journal, December 14, 1878, p. 868.

“…a small fake gem…”

“Extraction of Foreign Bodies from the Ear,” J. Marion Sims, British Medical Journal, December 14, 1878, p. 868. 

“They pinned the boy down…”

Sims’s description makes it clear that significant restraint would have been required.

“Extraction of Foreign Bodies from the Meatus Auditorius External,” J. Marion Sims, American Journal of the Medical Sciences, Vol. 9, 1845, p. 340.

“…the bit of glass…”

Sims’s differing accounts steer credit toward himself.

“Extraction of Foreign Bodies from the Meatus Auditorius External,” J. Marion Sims, American Journal of the Medical Sciences, Vol. 9, 1845, p. 340.

“Extraction of Foreign Bodies from the Ear,” J. Marion Sims, British Medical Journal, December 14, 1878, p. 868.

“…a four-year-old girl…”

“Extraction of Foreign Bodies from the Meatus Auditorius External,” J. Marion Sims, American Journal of the Medical Sciences, Vol. 9, 1845, pp. 340-41.