A Study In Scarlet Part 1 (1/2)
A STUDY IN SCARLET
by A CONAN DOYLE
PART I
Being a reprint from the reminiscences of JOHN H WATSON, MD, late of the Army Medical Department
CHAPTER I
MR SHERLOCK HOLMES
IN the year 1878 I took ree of Doctor of Medicine of the University of London, and proceeded to Netley to go through the course prescribed for surgeons in the ar completed my studies there, I was duly attached to the Fifth Northuiment was stationed in India at the tihan war had broken out On landing at Boh the passes, and was already deep in the enemy's country I followed, however, with many other officers ere in the sa Candahar in safety, where I found iment, and at once entered upon ht honours and pro but ade and attached to the Berkshi+res, hom I served at the fatal battle of Maiwand There I was struck on the shoulder by a Jezail bullet, which shattered the bone and grazed the subclavian artery I should have fallen into the hands of the e shown by Murray, my orderly, who threwme safely to the British lines
Worn with pain, and weak froone, I was rereat train of wounded sufferers, to the base hospital at Peshawar Here I rallied, and had already improved so far as to be able to walk about the wards, and even to bask a little upon the verandah, when I was struck down by enteric fever, that curse of our Indian possessions For months my life was despaired of, and when at last I came to myself and became convalescent, I was so weak and emaciated that a medical board deterland I was dispatched, accordingly, in the troopshi+p ”Orontes,” and landed a month later on Portsmouth jetty, with my health irretrievably ruined, but with perovern to iland, and was therefore as free as air -- or as free as an incos and sixpence a day will perravitated to London, that great cesspool into which all the loungers and idlers of the Empire are irresistibly drained There I stayed for so a co such ht So alar did the state of my finances become, that I soon realized that I must either leave the metropolis and rusticate somewhere in the country, or that IChoosing the latter alternative, I began byup my mind to leave the hotel, and to take up my quarters in some less pretentious and less expensive domicile
On the very day that I had co at the Criterion Bar, when sonized young Staht of a friendly face in the great wilderness of London is a pleasant thing indeed to a lonely man In old days Stamford had never been a particular crony of mine, but now I hailed hihted to see me In the exuberance of my joy, I asked hiether in a hanso with yourself, Watson?” he asked in undisguised wonder, as we rattled through the crowded London streets ”You are as thin as a lath and as brown as a nut”
I gave him a short sketch of my adventures, and had hardly concluded it by the time that we reached our destination
”Poor devil!” he said, coly, after he had listened tofor lodgings” {3} I answered ”Trying to solve the probleet coe thing,” remarked my companion; ”you are the second man to-day that has used that expression to me”
”And as the first?” I asked
”A felloho is working at the che hio halves with him in some nice rooms which he had found, and which were too much for his purse”
”By Jove!” I cried, ”if he really wants someone to share the rooms and the expense, I a a partner to being alone”
Young Stalass ”You don't know Sherlock Holmes yet,” he said; ”perhaps you would not care for hiainst hiainst him He is a little queer in his ideas -- an enthusiast in some branches of science As far as I know he is a decent fellow enough”
”A medical student, I suppose?” said I
”No -- I have no idea what he intends to go in for I believe he is well up in anatomy, and he is a first-class chemist; but, as far as I know, he has never taken out any systematic medical classes His studies are very desultory and eccentric, but he has ae which would astonish his professors”
”Did you never ask hi in for?” I asked
”No; he is not a h he can be coh when the fancy seizes him”
”I should like to e with anyone, I should prefer a h yet to stand hanistan to last me for the remainder of my natural existence How could I meet this friend of yours?”
”He is sure to be at the laboratory,” returned my companion ”He either avoids the place for weeks, or else he works there froether after luncheon”
”Certainly,” I answered, and the conversation drifted away into other channels
As wethe Holborn, Staentleer
”You et on with hihiement, so you et on it will be easy to part company,” I answered ”It see hard atyour hands of the matter Is this fellow's temper so formidable, or what is it? Don't be mealy-mouthed about it”
”It is not easy to express the inexpressible,” he answered with a laugh ”Holmes is a little too scientific for ine his giving a friend a little pinch of the latest vegetable alkaloid, not out of malevolence, you understand, but simply out of a spirit of inquiry in order to have an accurate idea of the effects To do him justice, I think that he would take it himself with the same readiness He appears to have a passion for definite and exact knowledge”
”Very right too”
”Yes, but itthe subjects in the dissecting-roo rather a bizarre shape”
”Beating the subjects!”
”Yes, to verify how far bruises may be produced after death I saw him at it with my own eyes”
”And yet you say he is not a medical student?”
”No Heaven knohat the objects of his studies are But here we are, and you must form your own impressions about him” As he spoke, we turned down a narrow lane and passed through a sreat hospital It was fa as we ascended the bleak stone staircase andcorridor with its vista of ashed wall and dun-coloured doors Near the further end a low arched passage branched away from it and led to the chemical laboratory
This was a lofty chamber, lined and littered with countless bottles Broad, low tables were scattered about, which bristled with retorts, test-tubes, and little Bunsen la fla over a distant table absorbed in his work At the sound of our steps he glanced round and sprang to his feet with a cry of pleasure ”I've found it! I've found it,” he shouted totowards us with a test-tube in his hand ”I have found a re-agent which is precipitated by hoeold ht could not have shone upon his features
”Dr Watson, Mr Sherlock Hol us
”How are you?” he said cordially, gripping iven hihanistan, I perceive”
”How on earth did you know that?” I asked in astonish to hilobin No doubt you see the significance of this discovery of , chemically, no doubt,” I answered, ”but practically ----”
”Why, al discovery for years Don't you see that it gives us an infallible test for blood stains Coerness, and drew”Let us have soer, and drawing off the resulting drop of blood in a chemical pipette ”Now, I add this small quantity of blood to a litre of water You perceive that the resulting mixture has the appearance of pure water The proportion of blood cannot be more than one in a million I have no doubt, however, that we shall be able to obtain the characteristic reaction” As he spoke, he threw into the vessel a fehite crystals, and then added some drops of a transparent fluid In an instant the contents assuany colour, and a brownish dust was precipitated to the botto his hands, and looking as delighted as a child with a new toy ”What do you think of that?”
”It seems to be a very delicate test,” I remarked