SIMS, JAMES (1813-83). An Ameri can born in Smith Carolina. He was graduated in medicine by Jefferson Medi cal College, Philadelphia, in 1835, and entered upon the practice of his profession at Mont gomery, Ala., in 1836. About 1S45 he became interested in the hitherto incurable , disease yesico-vaginal fistula, and established a private hospital for women, which for several years lie supported at his own expense. The success of his experiments at closing these fistulae was due, he claimed, to the substitution of silver wire for silk and other sutures, and be afterwards extended the use of metallic sutures to general surgery. He published a full account of his operation in the American Journal of Medical Sciences in 1852. Ile settled in New York City in 1853, and was instrumental in establishing the Woman's Hospital, for the treatment of diseases peculiar to women. In 1861 Dr. Sims went to Europe. Here in
1370 he organized the Anglo-American ambulance corps, of which he took charge. and which he ac companied to Sedan. Sims's operation has been of incalculable benefit and his name deserves a place as an inventive genius among the great surgeons of the world. Sims published several monographs and contributed articles to medical journals. lie published the following volumes: Trim ns Nascentium (1846) ; Silver Sutures in Surgery (1858) ; On Intra-uterine Fibroid Tumors (1874) ; Clinical Notes ow Uterine Sar•gery ( 1866) ; 4 ngrori merica n Ambulance (1870) ; and The Discovery of A nffsthesia (1877).
See The Story of Life, edited by his son, Harry Marion Sims (New York, 1884) ; also Austin Flint's /mm Memoriam James Marion Sims (New York, 1336).