National Republican., 1884-12-06
NEW PUBLICATIONS.
THE STORY OF MY LIFE BY J. MARION
SINS NJ. D., Ill. d. Edited by his son. H.
Marion Sims, NJ. d. New York ID. Apple
ton \ Co Mnshlngton W IL Morrison.

SIMS, NJ. D., Ill. d. Edited by his son. II,
Marion Sims, NJ. d. New York ID. Apple
ton Co. Washington W. II. Morrison.
This interesting book. the autobiog-
raphy of DIR. J. Marion Sims up to and
including the wear 1863, was written by
the distinguished surgeon two months
prior to his death. 1t has boon supple
meutcd by his son with letters written
by the father during his several visits to
Europe, thus giving us glimpses of the
innor life, feelings, motives, ana achieve
ments of tho great surgeon which could
have been obtained in no other way. Tho
preface by Judge I. j. Mackoy still
further adds to our information on these
points, whilo the culogistic resolutions in
the appendix passed by the various medi-
cal societies after his death, and in par
ticular the biographical sketch by DR..
Toner, OF this city, shows the universal
respect and affection in which the great
departed was hold by his medical brethren
throughout the land.
doctors seldom writo autobiographios, /"
says DIR. Sims, BY way of introduction.
ut may be presumptuous in me to leave
notes of my life, but many of my friends
have pressed me to do so."
To this circumstance tho world owes
tho liio of one of its great men, written
with marvellous simplicity and in perfect
good tasto. 1t is the story of man who
feols that he has accomplished work
worth recording and has solved onigmas
hitherto unguessod. Sims's ancestors
were among tho English settlers of Vir-
ginia. His father at tho ago of 90 at
tended school and learned tho accounting
and bookkeeping art. The family
shared in the struggles of theBritish and
Indian campaigns, and its members wero
noted for loyalty and integrity Young
Sims passed his schoolboy days in his
native state, South Carolina, and has mar
rated in very pleasant manner his OK
periences during that period, and incl
dentally gives us fine description of
plantation life and society ut that time, the
negro-folk lore. Of which Uncle Romus"
is specimen, and many other little point
of general interest.
In 1880 he entered Columbia IS. C.) col
lege to complete tho education which his
Presbyterian mother hoped would lead
him into the ministry, his fathers ambi-
tion for the son being law. OF his old
college president, DIR. Cooper, he says
IF he had flourished now, In the days Of
Darwin, Tyndall, and Huxley. ho would
have been greater infidel than any or
all of them put together" He mentions
Wv nOhio ichkth tOiitkC
the duels of the day, his aversion to
liquors, and their disastrous effect upon
him, and makes this modest commentary
upon his academic ability: ~ never was
remarkable for anything while / WAS in
college except good behavior. Nobody
expected anything of me and never ex-
pected anything Of myself" Meanwhile
his mother had died, and his So
lection of tho medical profess
sion proved keen disappointment
to his father. II never thought" said
he, that my son should be going around
from house to house through tho country
with box of pills In one. hand and o
squirt in the other" He now went to
the Charleston Medical school, where he
began work in earnest; thence to Jeffer-
son Medical college, Philadelphia, whose
great luminary was DIR. Mcclellan, father
of the general. Graduating in 1895, he
took private course; returned to South
Carolina and opened an office. His first
experience with an infant patient is quite
amusing. He had no idea of losing the
case, and continued treating it until the
old nurse said, mo use shakin' that baby
any more doctor. for that baby's dead"
Tho loss of this and subsequent case so
mortified him that he buried his sign
and resolved to quit practice. He, how
ever, went to Alabama, selecting the 18th
(his lucky date) as the day of settling at
Mount Meigs. Here we begin to see the
development of his medical and surgical
powers.
The great evil Of the country in which
his lot was cast was malarial disease. The
universal method of treatment for fevers
was hlaadinp and rureinp of tho tyncal
physician of the period he writes: HE
blod and purged and gave medicine from
tho time he was called to the patient
until the patient was called away" The
country was rude and primitive. Indians
hero and there, squalid negro huts upon
the plantations and often the houses of
the masters were plain and unpretentious.
In 1886 he went with his father on visit
to Philadelphia, whence he returned to
Charleston by steamer. Taken down with
malarial fever, and at deaths door, he was
saved by tho then uncommon remedy of
quinine and brandy. OF his work at this
period he says: II had no particular
interest in my profession at tho be-
ginning" and he even thought
of abandoning it for the cloth
ing business in Vicksburg as late as
1885. In 1910 another terrible illness
overlook him, and he moved in self pro-
lection to Montgomery, Ala, where he
succeeded in building up good practice.
OF his work while here he says: II
was the first man at the south that had
ever successfully treated club-foot. was
also the first man that had ever performed
an operation for strabismus or cross. eyes" /"
The year 1916 proved the turning point
of his life. He had performed very
difficult and successful operation on q
"hare-lip" in the previous year, but in
Anri1 12IE hn lie IL a. 10 l;a
covery of the origin of and elaborated
his theory and treatment of "Trismus
Kascentium," or infant lockiaw. Upon
this difficult subject he has left valuable
treatise, but he adds: "My doctrines in
respect to the pathology and treatment of
trismus nascentium have not been adopted
or accepted by the profession at large;
but l am satisfied that they arc
true" In June, 1645, hc took
up and carried to successful issue the
investigation and cure of the hitherto in
durable disease. "pesicO-rdginal .fStula."
Success was achieved after repeated
failures and loss Of timo, strength, and
money. The process required the use of
silver suture threads and the invention
Of what is now known us the "Sims
speculum." At onco he became famous.
His practice increased; he was even solic-
tied to accept medical professorship in
New Orleans. But ut this critical time
he contracted diarrhea, from which he
nearly lost his life. He visited New
York, went thence to "Cooper's WE'LL"
whose waters benefited him. and finally
settled in New York, in which climate
he Jared best He was not cordially
received by the medical fraternity
who did not understand his claims
Physicians, however, borrowed both
his instruments and method and
robbed him of emolument and credit
with my advent in New York." says
he, "the subject Of Uesico-uaginal fStula
idcerated perinaetla, aud the subject oi
pdrturition seemed all at once to interest
the profession more than they had ever
done BEFORE" To avail himself OF hil
skill in these specialties he conceived the