Page 91
“She lifted her veil…”
“…the snout of an animal…”
“…neither speak nor drink…”
“…hiding her face from all who knew her.”
“Sims promised a cure…”
“He invited doctors…”
“…secured a dentist…”
“…hired a sketch artist…”
“He performed two operations…”
“Margaret refused to submit…”
“…a famous dentist who visited Montgomery…”
“In early June 1845…”
“…such medicine was not in his line.”
“He had been in attendance…”
“…not as financially established…”
“She lifted her veil…”
SIMS, J. Marion, (1885). The Story of my Life, ed. by H. Marion-Sims. D. Appleton & Co: New York, p. 210.
“…the snout of an animal…”
SIMS, J. Marion, (1885). The Story of my Life, ed. by H. Marion-Sims. D. Appleton & Co: New York, p. 210.
“Double Congenital Hare-lip—Absence of the Superior Incisors and their portion of Alveolar Process,” J. Marion Sims, American Journal of Dental Science, September 1844, pp. 51-52.
“…neither speak nor drink…”
“Double Congenital Hare-lip—Absence of the Superior Incisors and their portion of Alveolar Process,” J. Marion Sims, American Journal of Dental Science, September 1844, p. 52.
“…hiding her face from all who knew her.”
“Double Congenital Hare-lip—Absence of the Superior Incisors and their portion of Alveolar Process,” J. Marion Sims, American Journal of Dental Science, September 1844, p. 52.
“Sims promised a cure…”
SIMS, J. Marion, (1885). The Story of my Life, ed. by H. Marion-Sims. D. Appleton & Co: New York, p. 210.
“He invited doctors…”
Sims’s autobiography claims that Margaret did not appear until the end of 1844—Sims can’t be trusted on details.
“Double Congenital Hare-lip—Absence of the Superior Incisors and their portion of Alveolar Process,” J. Marion Sims, American Journal of Dental Science, September 1844, p. 53.
“…secured a dentist…”
SIMS, J. Marion, (1885). The Story of my Life, ed. by H. Marion-Sims. D. Appleton & Co: New York, p. 211.
“…hired a sketch artist…”
“Double Congenital Hare-lip—Absence of the Superior Incisors and their portion of Alveolar Process,” J. Marion Sims, American Journal of Dental Science, September 1844, p. 52.
“He performed two operations…”
“Double Congenital Hare-lip—Absence of the Superior Incisors and their portion of Alveolar Process,” J. Marion Sims, American Journal of Dental Science, September 1844, pp 53-54.
“Margaret refused to submit…”
Sims glossed over this in his original paper, and claimed a perfect cure in his autobiography.
“Double Congenital Hare-lip—Absence of the Superior Incisors and their portion of Alveolar Process,” J. Marion Sims, American Journal of Dental Science, September 1844, p. 55.
SIMS, J. Marion, (1885). The Story of my Life, ed. by H. Marion-Sims. D. Appleton & Co: New York, p. 210-11.
“…a famous dentist who visited Montgomery…”
This episode is characteristic of Sims’s false modesty. Rather than acknowledging that he made sure that the visiting dentist—the editor of the journal in which he eventually published the case—became aware of the work he’d done, Sims presents it as though it’s an accident. For his entire life, Sims’s ambition to wealth and fame was derided by his colleagues, and he seized every opportunity to give the impression that his rise to the heights of the profession was not a result of upward-climbing, but happenstance.
SIMS, J. Marion, (1885). The Story of my Life, ed. by H. Marion-Sims. D. Appleton & Co: New York, p. 211-12.
“In early June 1845…”
SIMS, J. Marion, (1885). The Story of my Life, ed. by H. Marion-Sims. D. Appleton & Co: New York, p. 226.
“…such medicine was not in his line.”
SIMS, J. Marion, (1885). The Story of my Life, ed. by H. Marion-Sims. D. Appleton & Co: New York, p. 226.
“He had been in attendance…”
See “More than twenty-five men were gathered inside…,” above. Sims’s original article about Sam does not specify that Henry was there, but with the large number of medical persons in the room, it’s very likely that Henry would have been among them.
“…not as financially established…”
Sims’s autobiography, and Seale Harris’s biography—and even the R.G. Dun credit report on Sims in Alabama—all speak to his financial difficulties. Sims does not explicitly state that money was the reason he first agreed to attend to Anarcha’s birth, but it’s unclear why Sims would otherwise have agreed to attend to this particular case, particularly given the fact that he described the forceps delivery he eventually performed as relatively effortless.
SIMS, J. Marion, (1885). The Story of my Life, ed. by H. Marion-Sims. D. Appleton & Co: New York, pp. 226-27.
