The Contrast.
The first physician is renowned as a surgical genius and is regarded as the
father of modern gynecology. He served as president of the American Medical
Association, the International Medical Congress and the American Gynecological
Society. He is honored by having his name placed on hospitals, dormitories, and
endowed chairs. A monument is erected in his honor on the State House grounds
in Columbia, SC. The monument reads, “He
founded the science of gynecology was honored in all lands and died with the
benediction of mankind. The first surgeon of the ages in ministry to women,
treating alike empress and slave.”
By contrast, the second physician is considered by many to
be more of a butcher than a surgeon. He never completed his studies at
Jefferson Medical College. In his incompetence, he killed his first patient.
According to his own journal, “When I
arrived I found a child about eighteen months old, very much emaciated, who had
what we would call the summer complaint, or chronic diarrhea. I examined the
child minutely from head to foot. I looked at its gums, and as I always carried
a lancet with me and had surgical propensities, as soon as I saw some swelling
of the gums I at once took out my lancet and cut the gums down to the teeth. This
was good so far as it went. But, when it came time to making up a prescription,
I had no more ideas of what ailed the child, or what to do for it, than if I
had never studied medicine.” He killed his second patient (another infant)
in a similar manner. After the death of his second patient he fled South
Carolina, and moved to Alabama where he began to abuse African women and babies
in the name of “medical practice.” He was known to use a shoemaker’s awl to pry
the bones of African infant skulls into “proper alignment.” He was known to conduct
surgery on the genitalia of African women without using anesthesia.
The Shocking Truth.[1]
If you are not familiar with this story, then it may come as a shock that these
physicians are in fact the same person: J. Marion Sims. By any objective
account J. Marion Sims was a butcher. He performed the most horrific, acts of
barbarism on African people. He built a makeshift 16-bed “hospital” to house
the slaves that he used as experimental subjects. He operated on one enslaved
African woman, named Anarcha, over 30 times. Although Sims never used
anesthesia prior to cutting on these women, he often gave them opium following
the procedures. After being drugged on opium, they moved very little, which
aided their recovery. Sims often made a public spectacle of cutting on these
women and did so as demonstrations for other physicians. The other physicians
would frequently be called upon to hold the women down as they writhed in pain.
On one occasion the physicians observing left the procedure as the cries from the
woman being cut upon were so dreadful.
The Makeover.[2]
So, if Sims treatment of Anarcha and other enslaved Africans is so barbaric,
why is he so highly honored? Enter Robert Thom an illustrator born in 1915 in
Grand Rapids, MI. Mr. Thom was commissioned by Parke-Davis Pharmaceuticals to
create a series of paintings depicting “Great Moments in Medicine” and “Great
Moments in Pharmaceuticals.” He created these works between 1948 and 1964. One
of those paintings was J. Marion Sims:
Gynecologic Surgeon. It depicted a very stately Sims, a very demure African
patient, and a set of willing assistants. Absent were the torture instruments
that Sims admits to creating. Absent was any indication that the facilities
were makeshift. The painting gives no indication that the waiting victim was
apprehensive, that the other physicians were reluctant or that Sims was
incompetent. Thom through his painting provides a patently false misrepresentation
of history. But Thom’s misrepresentation is not confined to this one portrait.
Thom prepared 85 portraits for Parke-Davis. Among his other misrepresentations
is Hippocrates as the father of medicine (with no reference to the African Imhotep
that preceded him). In another he presents Joseph Lister as the founder of
antisepsis (with no mention of the African medical texts that describe the use
of antisepsis over 2,000 years before Lister). Whether we look at Thom’s
depiction of Galen, Lavoisier, Jenner, or The
Temples and Cult of Asclepius, we will see artistic misrepresentations of
history that are rife with inaccuracy.
I am compelled to share here one final cautionary note. Thom
did not act alone in making J. Marion the Butcher into a highly respected
figure. Parke-Davis Pharmaceuticals conceptualized and funded his artwork. The
members of the American Medical Association, the International Medical Congress
and the American Gynecological Society elected him president to their
respective organizations. The legislature of the State of South Carolina (and
ultimately its citizens) support the monument erected in his honor. Every
member of every organization who in any way honors Sims is complicit in the
makeover.
The Fix.
There is a Kenyan proverb which states that, “Until lions start writing down their own stories, the hunters will
always be heroes.” Friends, you are lions! Write our story. Draw our story.
Paint our story. Sculpt our story. Do so without reservation, without
qualification, and without hesitation. Give our people the tools that we need
to tell our story!
And remember… Have Fun!
Jomo W. Mutegi, Ph.D. is an author of science-related children’s books, and an Associate Professor of Science Education at the Indiana University School of Education in Indianapolis. He is also a member of the (ES)2 Research Program. To learn more about Dr. Mutegi’s books, visit www.JomoMutegi.com. To learn more about Dr. Mutegi’s research, visit www.ES2RP.org.
[1] To learn more about J. Marion
the Butcher, read Washington, Harriet A. (2006). Medical apartheid: The dark
history of medical experimentation on Black Americans from Colonial Times to
the present. New York: Doubleday.
[2] To learn more about Thom's misrepresentation of history read, Metzl, Jonathan M. & Howell, Joel D. (2004). Making history: Lessons from the "Great Moments" series of pharmaceutical advertisements. Academic Medicine, 79, 1027-1032.
