Did J. Marion Sims deliberately addict his first fistula patients to opium?

Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences

Volumn 62, Issue 3, 2007, Pages 336-356

  Wall, L Lewis ^a  

^a WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF MEDICINE   (United States)

Author keywords

History of gynecology; J. Marion Sims; Opium; Slave medicine; Surgical experimentation; Vesicovaginal fistula

Indexed keywords

NARCOTIC ANALGESIC AGENT; OPIATE;

ADDICTION; AFRICAN AMERICAN; ARTICLE; CYSTOVAGINAL FISTULA; ETHICS; ETHNOLOGY; FEMALE; GYNECOLOGY; HISTORY; HUMAN; HUMAN EXPERIMENT; MEDICAL ETHICS; POSTOPERATIVE PAIN; SOCIAL PROBLEM;

AFRICAN AMERICANS; ANALGESICS, OPIOID; ETHICS, MEDICAL; FEMALE; GYNECOLOGY; HISTORY, 19TH CENTURY; HUMANS; OPIUM; PAIN, POSTOPERATIVE; SOCIAL PROBLEMS; SUBSTANCE-RELATED DISORDERS; THERAPEUTIC HUMAN EXPERIMENTATION; VESICOVAGINAL FISTULA;

EID: 34548412666     PISSN: 00225045     EISSN: 14684373     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1093/jhmas/jrl045     Document Type: Article

References (84)

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29. Sims, Silver Sutures in Surgery, 8.
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32. Ibid., 81.
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38. Even today, with much better catheters, prolonged bladder drainage by itself succeeds in closing a fistula that has developed as a result of prolonged obstructed labor only in about 15% of cases. See Kees Waaldijk, "The Immediate Management of Fresh Obstetric Fistulas," Am. J. Obstet. Gynecol., 2004, 191, 795-99.
39. J. M. Chelius, A System of Surgery, trans. John F South, 3 vol. (Philadelphia: Lea and Blanchard, 1847), II. 189-90.
40. Ibid.
41. Ibid.
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50. Ibid.
51. Ibid.
52. Francis Gurney Smith, Domestic Medicine, Surgery, and Materia Medica, with Directions for the, Diet and Management of the Sick-Room (Philadelphia: Lindsay and Blakiston, 1851), "81-82.
53. Ibid.
54. Ibid.
55. Ibid.
56. Hayward, "Case of Vesico-Vaginal Fistula," 287.
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58. M. Schuppert, A Treatise on Vesico-Vaginal Fistula (New Orleans: Daily Commercial Bulletin Printers, 1866), 17.
59. Ibid., 21.
60. James Y. Simpson, Clinical Lectures on Diseases of Women (Philadelphia: Blanchard and Lea, 1863), 26.
61. Ibid., 39.
62. Ibid.
63. Ibid.
64. Ibid.
65. Ibid.
66. Collis, "Cases of Vesico-Vaginal Fistula," 126.
67. Isaac Baker Brown, On Some Diseases of Women Admitting of Surgical Treatment (Philadelphia: Blanchard and Lea, 1856), 96.
68. Ibid., 102-3.
69. Washington L. Atlee, "Case of Successful Operation for Vesico-Vaginal Fistula," Am. J. Med. Sci., 1860, 39(n.s.), 67-82, 70.
70. Ibid., 73-74.
71. Ibid., 74.
72. Ibid., 75.
73. John Erichsen, The Science and Art of Surgery, Being a Treatise on Surgical Injuries, Diseases and Operations, ed. John Brinton (Philadelphia: Blanchard and Lea, 1854), 828-29.
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75. Ibid.
76. Ibid.
77. Ibid.
78. D. Hayes Agnew, Lacerations of the Female Perineum and Vesico-Vaginal Fistula. Their History and Treatment (Philadelphia: P. Blakiston, Son, and Co., 1882), 108.
79. Valentine Mott, Pain and Anaesthetics: An Essay, Introductory to a Series of Surgical and Medical Monographs (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1862), 8-9.
80. Seale Harris, Woman's Surgeon: The Life Story of J. Marion Sims (New York: Macmillan, 1950), 100.
81. Howard B. Gustein and Huda Akil, "Chapter 21: Opioid Analgesics," in Goodman and Gilman's The Pharmacologic Basis of Therapeutics, ed. Laurence L. Brunton, John S. Lazo, and Keith L. Parker, 11th ed. (New York: The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., 2006), 547-90, 563.
82. Smith, Domestic Medicine, Surgery, 81.
83. Charles Butler, MD, Butler's Medicine Chest Directory and Family Catalogue of Drugs, Chemicals, and Medicinal Compounds, with the Properties and Doses of Such as Are more Generally Used in Domestic Medicine, 4th ed. (London: Simpkin and Marshall, 1837), 87-88.
84. Gustein and Akil, "Chapter 21: Opioid Analgesics," 563.