Page 98
“…Hall, Mores & Roberts…”
See “…the bent handle of a silver spoon…,” above. Sims does not explicitly state that he thinks of the bent spoon he had used in an earlier surgery occurs to him now, but it seems unlikely that he would not have made the connection. As well, giving the impression that everything about the fistula cure is “new,” as opposed to a mere repurposing of something he already used, is a central feature of Sims’s mythmaking.
An image of Sims’s original tool appears later in the book.
SIMS, J. Marion, (1885). The Story of my Life, ed. by H. Marion-Sims. D. Appleton & Co: New York, p. 234. Souchon, E. (1896). Places Rendered Famous by Dr. J. Marion Sims, In Montgomery, A. New Orleans Medical & Surgical Journal, p. 9.
“…doctors all over the world…”
A few examples.
“The Pouch of Douglas,” Tracy Sorensen, Medical Journal of Australia, Vol. 11, 2015, p. 598.
“Gabriele Fallopio (1523-1562) and his Contributions to the Development of Medicine and Anatomy,” M.M. Mortazavi, et. al., Childs Nervous System, Vol. 29, No. 6, 2013, p. 877.
“…called on two of his students.”
SIMS, J. Marion, (1885). The Story of my Life, ed. by H. Marion-Sims. D. Appleton & Co: New York, p. 234.
“Lucy’s vagina began to dilate… ”
Sims’s description of Lucy’s first examination, in his autobiography, flubs the name: he begins calling her Betsey halfway through the procedure, and reverts to Lucy again before the end. His Silver Sutures lecture does not describe this initial examination—and, unlike Mrs. Merrill, there is nothing specific about a sheet being thrown over Lucy. I have added a couple details that Sims omitted, the source of the light, the bending of the spoon.
SIMS, J. Marion, (1885). The Story of my Life, ed. by H. Marion-Sims. D. Appleton & Co: New York, p. 234.