Footnotes
Thomsonian physicians—those who followed botanical medicine methods taught by Samuel Thomson—believed all illness was caused by cold and that any treatment producing heat would aid in recovery. They used cayenne pepper, steam baths, and Lobelia inflata (a plant) to cause heavy sweating and vomiting. (Haller, People’s Doctors, 20–27, 40; Porter, Greatest Benefit to Mankind, 393.)
Haller, John S., Jr. The People’s Doctors: Samuel Thomson and the American Botanical Movement, 1790–1860. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 2000.
Porter, Ray. The Greatest Benefit to Mankind: A Medical History of Humanity. New York: W. W. Norton, 1997.
Ergot is a fungus that grows on rye. In addition to using it to induce uterine muscles to contract, botanical physicians used ergot to minimize bleeding. However, Samuel Thomson, founder of the botanical movement, strongly cautioned against the use of ergot, reporting that it “destroys the elastic power of the muscles to such a degree, that they never regain their natural tone” and that “the consequence of such treatment often proves fatal.” (“Ergot,” in Oxford English Dictionary, 3:271; Thomson, New Guide to Health, 138.)
Oxford English Dictionary. Compact ed. 2 vols. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1971.
Thomson, Samuel. New Guide to Health; or, Botanic Family Physician. Containing a Complete System of Practice . . . to Which Is Prefixed a Narrative of the Life and Medical Discoveries of the Author. Boston: By the author, 1822.
JS, Journal, 2 Mar. 1843; see also Dinger, “Medicine and Obstetrics in Mormon Nauvoo,” 51–68.
Dinger, Steven C. “‘The Doctors in This Region Don’t Know Much’: Medicine and Obstetrics in Mormon Nauvoo.” Journal of Mormon History 42, no. 4 (October 2016): 51–68.
Coverture was the common-law term for the legal status of married women throughout the nineteenth century. According to eighteenth-century British jurist William Blackstone, “By marriage, the husband and wife are one person in law: that is, the very being or legal existence of the woman is suspended during the marriage, or at least is incorporated and consolidated into that of the husband; under whose wing, protection, and cover, she performs every thing.” (Blackstone, Commentaries, vol. 1, bk. 1, p. 355, italics in original; see also Zaher, “Research Guide on the Common Law Doctrine of Coverture,” 459–486.)
Blackstone, William. Commentaries on the Laws of England: In Four Books; with an Analysis of the Work. By Sir William Blackstone, Knt. One of the Justices of the Court of Common Pleas. In Two Volumes, from the Eighteenth London Edition. . . . 2 vols. New York: W. E. Dean, 1840.
Zaher, Claudia. “When a Woman’s Marital Status Determined Her Legal Status: A Research Guide on the Common Law Doctrine of Coverture.” Law Library Journal 94, no. 3 (Summer 2002): 459–486.
“Petition,” Wasp, 22 Mar. 1843, [2]; “Assumpsit,” in Bouvier, Law Dictionary, 1:99–100; see also Dinger, “Judge Joseph Smith and the Expansion of Legal Rights for Women,” 74.
Bouvier, John. A Law Dictionary, Adapted to the Constitution and Laws of the United States of America, and of the Several States of the American Union; With References to the Civil and Other Systems of Foreign Law. 2 vols. Philadelphia: Deacon and Peterson, 1854.
Dinger, John S. “Judge Joseph Smith and the Expansion of the Legal Rights of Women: The Dana v. Brink Trial.” Journal of Mormon History 42, no. 4 (October 2016): 69–96.
Summons, 14 Feb. 1843, Dana v. Brink (Nauvoo Mayor’s Ct. 1843), photocopy, CHL; An Act concerning Justices of the Peace and Constables [3 Feb. 1827], Revised Code of Laws, of Illinois [1826–1827], pp. 259–260, sec. 1.
The Revised Code of Laws, of Illinois, Enacted at the Fifth General Assembly, at Their Session Held at Vandalia, Commencing on the Fourth Day of December, 1826, and Ending the Nineteenth of February, 1827. Vandalia, IL: Robert Blackwell, 1827.
Summons, 14 Feb. 1843, Dana v. Brink (Nauvoo Mayor’s Ct. 1843), photocopy, CHL.
Subpoena, 15 Feb. 1843, Dana v. Brink (Nauvoo Mayor’s Ct. 1843), photocopy, CHL; Subpoena, 18 Feb. 1843, Dana v. Brink (Nauvoo Mayor’s Ct. 1843), photocopy, CHL; Subpoena, 23 Feb. 1843, Dana v. Brink (Nauvoo Mayor’s Ct. 1843), photocopy, BYU; Subpoena, 27 Feb. 1843, Dana v. Brink (Nauvoo Mayor’s Ct. 1843), photocopy, BYU; see also Historical Introduction to Dana v. Brink.
“Bill of Particulars,” in Bouvier, Law Dictionary, 1:135.
Bouvier, John. A Law Dictionary, Adapted to the Constitution and Laws of the United States of America, and of the Several States of the American Union; With References to the Civil and Other Systems of Foreign Law. 2 vols. Philadelphia: Deacon and Peterson, 1854.
Charles Dana, Bill of Particulars, ca. 2 Mar. 1843, Dana v. Brink (Hancock Co. Cir. Ct. 1844), Hancock County Courthouse, Carthage, IL.
JS, Journal, 2 Mar. 1843; Act to Incorporate the City of Nauvoo, 16 Dec. 1840; “Officers of the City of Nauvoo,” Times and Seasons, 15 Dec. 1841, 3:638; Cotton, Treatise on the Powers and Duties of Justices of the Peace in Illinois, 4.
Times and Seasons. Commerce/Nauvoo, IL. Nov. 1839–Feb. 1846.
Cotton, Henry G. A Treatise on the Powers and Duties of Justices of the Peace in the State of Illinois, with Practical Forms. Ottawa, IL: By the author, 1845.
“Regular” physicians were doctors who were educated at medical academies and universities and who believed that a hyperactive state of the arteries was the cause of disease. These doctors treated patients with an aggressive form of bloodletting and calomel purges. (Whorton, Nature Cures, 3–7.)
Whorton, James C. Nature Cures: The History of Alternative Medicine in America. New York: Oxford University Press, 2002.
When presiding over previous cases in the mayor’s court, JS typically gave his ruling the same day as the trial. (See JS, Journal, 3 Mar. 1843; Historical Introduction to City of Nauvoo v. McGraw; Historical Introduction to City of Nauvoo v. W. Thompson; and Historical Introduction to State of Illinois v. Olney..)
“Circuit Court of the U. States for the District of Illinois,” Times and Seasons, 16 Jan. 1843, 4:65–71; “Circuit Court of the United States for the District of Illinois,” Wasp, 28 Jan. 1843, [1]–[2].
Times and Seasons. Commerce/Nauvoo, IL. Nov. 1839–Feb. 1846.
The Wasp. Nauvoo, IL. Apr. 1842–Apr. 1843.
It is also unknown whether JS read the entire trial report or just his ruling to the court on 10 March. (JS, Journal, 10 Mar. 1843.)
Os tincae is an archaic medical term referring to “the lower or outer orifice of the utero-cervical canal.” (“Os,” in Oxford English Dictionary, 7:217.)
Oxford English Dictionary. Compact ed. 2 vols. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1971.
In the 1840s, parties to lawsuits were generally not permitted to testify given their interest in the outcome of the case. With some exceptions, the principle of coverture prevented a wife from testifying in a suit in which her husband was a party. (Phillipps and Amos, Treatise on the Law of Evidence, 1:150.)
Phillipps, S. March, and Andrew Amos. A Treatise on the Law of Evidence, from the Eighth London Edition, with Considerable Additions. Vol. 1. Boston: Elisha G. Hammond, 1839.
After briefly summarizing the defense’s objection to Margaret Dana’s testimony, Willard Richards’s notes indicate “evidence admitted,” but they do not indicate that JS quoted from Blackstone. After the court adjourned on 2 March 1843, JS spent the “evening in company with [William W.] Phelps & [Willard] Richards in the middle room. looking out of Blackstone on evidenc[e] of wife for husband.” The reference here to “Bull’s Nisi Prius, S. C. 287” is to an English precedent cited by Blackstone. This suggests that although JS overruled the defense’s objection and allowed Margaret Dana to testify, the reasoning and legal support for his ruling drawn from Blackstone were developed later. (JS, Journal, 2 Mar. 1843; Blackstone, Commentaries, vol. 1, bk. 1, pp. 364–365n46.)
Blackstone, William. Commentaries on the Laws of England: In Four Books; with an Analysis of the Work. By Sir William Blackstone, Knt. One of the Justices of the Court of Common Pleas. In Two Volumes, from the Eighteenth London Edition. . . . 2 vols. New York: W. E. Dean, 1840.
Rather than “nature of the injury,” the Phillipps and Amos treatise has “nature of the inquiry.” (Phillipps and Amos, Treatise on the Law of Evidence, 1:158–159.)
Phillipps, S. March, and Andrew Amos. A Treatise on the Law of Evidence, from the Eighth London Edition, with Considerable Additions. Vol. 1. Boston: Elisha G. Hammond, 1839.
Before the introduction of hypodermic syringes, the term injection referred to an enema. Cayenne pepper and lobelia enemas were commonly used by Thomsonians to raise body temperature and aid natural body functions. (Whorton, Nature Cures, 29, 31.)
Whorton, James C. Nature Cures: The History of Alternative Medicine in America. New York: Oxford University Press, 2002.
For more detailed accounts of the doctors’ testimonies, see JS, Journal, 2–3 Mar. 1843.
The following list distilling the main points of evidence was adapted from Onias Skinner’s closing argument. (JS, Journal, 3 Mar. 1843.)
In the 1840s, female midwives, rather than male doctors, assisted in the majority of births. (See Dinger, “Medicine and Obstetrics in Mormon Nauvoo,” 64–65.)
Dinger, Steven C. “‘The Doctors in This Region Don’t Know Much’: Medicine and Obstetrics in Mormon Nauvoo.” Journal of Mormon History 42, no. 4 (October 2016): 51–68.
Willard Richards’s contemporaneous notes of Bostwick’s testimony suggest that Bostwick attempted to counter several points offered by previous witnesses. (JS, Journal, 3 Mar. 1843.)
Willard Richards’s contemporaneous notes of the 2–3 March 1843 trial do not contain an account of Brink submitting his ten-dollar bill for services, which suggests the possibility that this occurred between the close of the trial and JS’s delivery of the ruling on 10 March. (See JS, Journal, 3 Mar. 1843.)
Rather than “this is the duty of the medical practitioner,” Chitty has “this is the implied duty of a medical practitioner.” Chitty cited “8 East, 348” as an English precedent. (Chitty, Practical Treatise on the Law of Contracts, 438.)
Chitty, Joseph. A Practical Treatise on the Law of Contracts, Not under Seal; and upon the Usual Defences to Actions Thereon. 4th American ed. Springfield, MA: G. and C. Merriam, 1839.
Phillipps and Amos, Treatise on the Law of Evidence, 1:443.
Phillipps, S. March, and Andrew Amos. A Treatise on the Law of Evidence, from the Eighth London Edition, with Considerable Additions. Vol. 1. Boston: Elisha G. Hammond, 1839.
Blackstone, Commentaries, vol. 2, bk. 3, p. 91.
Blackstone, William. Commentaries on the Laws of England: In Four Books; with an Analysis of the Work. By Sir William Blackstone, Knt. One of the Justices of the Court of Common Pleas. In Two Volumes, from the Eighteenth London Edition. . . . 2 vols. New York: W. E. Dean, 1840.
This entire sentence is a verbatim quotation from Blackstone, Commentaries, vol. 2, bk. 3, p. 91n7. “1 Saund. 312” was an English precedent cited by Blackstone.
Blackstone, William. Commentaries on the Laws of England: In Four Books; with an Analysis of the Work. By Sir William Blackstone, Knt. One of the Justices of the Court of Common Pleas. In Two Volumes, from the Eighteenth London Edition. . . . 2 vols. New York: W. E. Dean, 1840.
Rather than “to kill a child in utero,” Blackstone has “to kill a child in its mother’s womb.” “Hawkins Pleas of the Crown 80” was an English precedent cited by Blackstone. (Blackstone, Commentaries, vol. 2, bk. 4, p. 151.)
Blackstone, William. Commentaries on the Laws of England: In Four Books; with an Analysis of the Work. By Sir William Blackstone, Knt. One of the Justices of the Court of Common Pleas. In Two Volumes, from the Eighteenth London Edition. . . . 2 vols. New York: W. E. Dean, 1840.
That is, Dana’s bill of particulars.
The costs came to $11.59. (William Brink et al., Bond, 29 Mar. 1843, Dana v. Brink [Nauvoo Mun. Ct. 1843], JS Collection, CHL.)