medical matters

An example of Dr Watson's incredible diagnosis skill from 'The Solitary Cyclist' in which he finds:

"..a terrible cut upon his head. He was insensible, but alive. A glance at his wound told me that it had not penetrated the bone."

Oh well that's alright then!

Watson's own records of his exploits don't always give the best impression as to his medical prowess. Here he comes upon a man with a terrible wound and just leaves him, rushing off with Holmes to protect the damsel in distress, one of the canon's many Violets (I forget which). Gallant to the lady - rather heartless to the young man!

I'm not a medical man myself and my observations on Watson's skills are limited mostly to how many times he uses brandy to rouse stricken victims. I must therefore glance at the Annotated whenever something medically odd pops up - and, alas, Watson is usually found wanting. His biggest clangers (plural) must be in 'The Engineer's Thumb', where the recently thumbless engineer somehow has been lying insensible for hours in the grass with his exposed wound, staggers his way to Watson, gets the wound dressed (but not stitched) and then is dragged off to meet Sherlock Holmes.

My goodness but Watson's brandy must be peculiarly strong stuff! The interesting book 'A Doctor Enjoys Sherlock Holmes' refers to this as 'Watson's Universal Remedy'. (the book is available now as a reprint on Amazon)

*

Why, one wonders, does Watson have "no record" of Carruthers' fate when he knows that of everyone else in the story? Poor note-keeping? Or was Carruthers miraculously spared any legal punishment and hence it didn't make the papers?

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

second helpings

Image
Incredibly there is at least one HP Lovecraft/Cthulhu-themed cookbook on the market now. Has the world finally gone mad? What recipes can such a book contain? HPL was hardly a "foodie" and that goes double for his characters - gaunt, frail, monastic library-dwellers for the most part. Presumably it has fun (citation needed) with various fish and squid-based dishes. If Cthulhu does still lie sleeping it's for the best he remains ignorant of this insult. Perhaps there are some banana pudding recipes for any (white) apes of the Jermyn family line? The plethora of Sherlock Holmes cookbooks at least makes sense. Aside from a wide variety of dishes actually set out in the saga itself these dishes themselves are often a part of the domestic Victorian scene which, now vanished, come alive in Watson's pages. One such cookbook purports to be written by Mrs Hudson herself. For kitchen-confident buffs of the great detective recreating an authentic 221b dinner table would be a rar
Read more

the boredom of Bond

Image
Now that I've finished the Penguin Modern Classics omnibus 'Quantum of Solace ' I can now say I have read every James Bond story (by Ian Fleming). In some ways the last story proper 'The Living Daylights' is a case of saving the best for last. But it's not just one of the best-written Bond tales - it's one of the most realistic in the way it compresses the danger and excitement of Bond's job role into a few short, tense moments surrounded by hour after hour of boredom. Arriving in Berlin to act as sniper-cover for an escaping agent, Bond is told this agent's window for escape is between 6-7pm on one of three consecutive nights. As per sod's law he eventually makes his attempt on the third night, making for a combination of long boring stretches of daytime, tense excitement for an hour or two, then more tedium: "The next day, and the next night watch, were duplicates of the first [...] the rest was a killing of time and a tightening of the
Read more

Beryl's bank

Image
A foreign colleague of mine was confused recently by my reference to "the Bank of Mum and Dad". Very soon after, I picked up 'The Beryl Coronet' to read and was met with a classic example of that very 'bank'. Arthur Holder is marked by his own father Alexander Holder as something of a disappointment. Cleverly, this colours not only Holder Sr's perception of Arthur's apparent role in the theft of the Beryl Coronet itself, but also colours our perception of it, as readers. Sherlock Holmes, of course, sees through this almost immediately and is able to store (one can hardly say 'restore') Arthur in his father's affections. Still though, can Holder Sr be blamed for this? It does look as if all Arthur ever did was hold out his hand and expect money every time - which he usually got. 'The Bank of Mum and Dad' is a popular destination of first financial resort - and the Holder branch obviously gave better terms than most. "I have n
Read more