Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1912-04-19
DIR. J. MARION SIMS.
Lancaster Man Americas Greatest Coqtribu-
ton to Surgery.


1S<SGsO<IGS0<l4
There was a free niger" Anarcha
who had a frightful case Of 1t, and
with Faith in God and himself he
had operated time and again. until
the faculty of the city got. together
and deputed his brother-in-law to dis
suade him from a project that they
said was useless torture to a human
being. The doctor met the protest
with Hope and promised that II ne
failed once more he would give up the
idea. He knew his method was right;
IL he could only find suture that
would hold the work when he had
done, he would be successful, and yet
what could he do? He had tried every
suture known to medical science, but
none was permanent.
One morning as he was walking
down Dexter Avenue, then Market
street, something caught his eye; 1t
was wire string for a musical instru-
ment, and in a twinkling the BAN
ishing forever Of one Of womankind's
most horrible scourges was made pos
sible! He saw it all now! He rush.
ed into the music store and In great
excitement explained to the shopman
that he must have a string like that
he held, but finer and Of silver. so
that 1t could not corrode. Could 1t
be procured? 1t was procured as soon
as possible and in less than a month.
before a skeptical audience of sur
geons, the Charity patient, poor An
archa, was pronounced cured!
The play really ends here, but, as
/ said in the prologue, an account of
his great triumph cannot be unprofit-
able, so now for the epilogue.
The devising Of the silver wire suit
ure is enough to make a man famous,
but genius has a way Of doing many
things more than are necessary for
fame. DR.. Sims invented also that
most indispensable instrument, the
speculum which bears his name. He
devised the position in surgery which
Is called the "Sims position" and made
innumerable improvements here and
there in the field. In 1852 little son
was born to him on the 25th Of De-
cember. A tiny slab in historic Oak
wood cemetery tells how Merry
Christmas, son of ]. Marion and The
resa ]. Sims" died before the New
Year The next year the doctor went
to New York and opened a hospital
for the treatment Of the disease he had
conquered. His success and fame
were such that in less than two years,
the state legislature of New York gave
him $4,000 with which to build a hos
pital where all women suffering might
be healed. This is the beginning Of
the famous "Woman's Hospital"
In 1861 he was called to Paris where
he was received with tremendous en-
thusiasm. After demonstrating his
methods and conquering every doubt,
he wrought wonders among the nobil-
ity and by a touch Of his surgical wand
brought health to a more exalted per-
sonage. The gratitude which the En-
press Eugenie felt to him doubtless
hastened his being made a chevalier
of the Legion of Honor by her imperial
spouse.
He had now been away from his be-
loved southland for nearly a decade,
but he could not return, for the war
for southern independence was in full
progress, and the blockade was like
the coils of a mighty anaconda, tight
ening minute by minute. And so he
yielded to petitions from other cities
and left Paris on triumphal tour, and
was decorated in Brussels, The Hague
and Moscow. He was received with
tremendous honors in London and
Dublin, in which first he lectured and
demonstrated his method to the Royal
College Of Surgeons. He never forgot
his relatives in Montgomery, for piles
of old letters still recount at first hand
the story of the way in which he was
"lionized."
In 1870, at the outbreak of the Fran
co-Prussian war, he organized with
Florence Nightingale the germ of the
modern Red Cross work, the Anglo
American Ambulance Corps, and he
was with Napoleon at the surrender of
Sedan.
After four years more Of adulation in
Europe, DR.. Sims returned to Mont
gomery, where the little city received
him with the utmost possible demon
stration of respect, pride and esteem.
After his return to New York he was
in 1878 elected president of the Amer
lean Medical association, the highest
honor that could be given him in this
country by his professional brethren.
It Is among the graceful things our
republic lacks, that 1t has no way of
publicly doing honor to its own citi-
zens, by way of knighting or decorat-
ing it's sons whom European countries
seek to ennoble. His last years were
passed in charity work and varied by
several visits to the scenes Of his tri-
umphs. He died rather unexpectedly
in the early morning of November
18th, 1883, a sweet, modest, southern
gentleman, unspoiled by all the honors
that Europe could heap upon him. 1t
is interesting to note that he shared
with Lee and Jackson an intense feel
ing of personal responsibility to per-
sonal God Whatever the faults of the
religion of yesterday, the feeling of re-
sponsibility to a more or less antro-
pomorphic Being certainly produced
characters that the religion of today
cannot, or at least does not, produce
A magnificent bronze statue in Bry-
ant park, New York, shows great
city's appreciation of a great man
Besides a multitude of contributions to
medical journals, DR.. Sims wrote q
most charming autobiography, brought
down to about 1861. He was too mod
est to record the great honors that
came after and most fascinating part
of his career is missing. The book
| The Story of My Life" was publish
ed year after his death.
DR.. Sims daughter, Florence, mar