Illustration by Walter Paget for The Strand Magazine (December, 1913)
November 29, 1890: Culverton Smith confessed to killing his nephew, Victor Savage. [DYIN]
The very one, by George, and it may as well leave the room in my pocket. There goes your last shred of evidence. But you have the truth now, Holmes, and you can die with the knowledge that I killed you. You knew too much of the fate of Victor Savage, so I have sent you to share it. You are very near your end, Holmes. I will sit here and I will watch you die.
Source:A Day by Day Chronology of Mr. Sherlock Holmes according to Zeisler and Christ, compiled by William S Dorn, BSI, DWNP
Illustration by Walter Paget for The Strand Magazine (December, 1913)
November 28, 1890: Holmes fasted for a second day. [DYIN]
He was indeed a deplorable spectacle. In the dim light of a foggy November day the sick-room was a gloomy spot, but it was that gaunt wasted face staring at me from the bed which sent a chill to my heart. His eyes had the brightness of fever, there was a hectic flush upon either cheek, and dark crusts clung to his lips. The thin hands upon the coverlet twitched incessantly. His voice was croaking and spasmodic. He lay listlessly as I entered the room but the sight of me brought a gleam of recognition to his eyes.
Jeremy Brett as Sherlock Holmes in “The Dying Detective” (Granada, 1994)
November 27, 1890: Holmes fasted. [DYIN]
‘Three days of absolute fast does not improve one’s beauty, Watson. For the rest there is nothing which a sponge may not cure. With vaseline upon one’s forehead, belladonna in one’s eyes, rouge over the cheek-bones, and crusts of beeswax round one’s lips a very satisfying effect can be produced. Malingering is a subject upon which I have sometimes thought of writing a monograph. A little occasional talk about half-crowns, oysters, or any other extraneous subject produces a pleasing effect of delirium.’
Source:A Day by Day Chronology of Mr. Sherlock Holmes according to Zeisler and Christ, compiled by William S Dorn, BSI, DWNP
HMS Orontes [Griffin & Co, 1880]November 26, 1880: The Orontes docked at Portsmouth bearing Watson. [STUD]
Worn with pain, and weak from the prolonged hardships which I had undergone, I was removed, with a great train of wounded sufferers, to the base hospital at Peshawur. 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 determined that not a day should be lost in sending me back to England. I was dispatched, accordingly, in the troopship Orontes, and landed a month later on Portsmouth jetty, with my health irretrievably ruined, but with permission from a paternal government to spend the next nine months in attempting to improve it.
Illustration by Frederic Dorr Steele for The Strand Magazine (1913)
November 26, 1890: Holmes took to his bed. [DYIN]
I was horrified, for I had heard nothing of his illness. I need not say that I rushed for my coat and my hat. As we drove back I asked for the details.
‘There is little I can tell you, sir. He has been working at a case down at Rotherhithe in an alley near the river and he has brought this illness back with him. He took to his bed on Wednesday afternoon and has never moved since. For these three days neither food nor drink have passed his lips.’
Source:A Day by Day Chronology of Mr. Sherlock Holmes according to Zeisler and Christ, compiled by William S Dorn, BSI, DWNP.
Did Doctor Watson rejoin the British Army as a physician during World War I? What is the evidence and what are your surmises from knowing the life of the man?
Our Dr Bob Katz “Willow” wrote, in a BSJ article in 1992, that Watson spent World War I serving in the army performing pre-induction physicals. He would have been quite expert at identifying malingerers who were attempting to evade military service, as he had firsthand experience learning about malingering from Holmes, one of the first students of the subject (DYIN).
Margie Deck “Gwen” from Seattle’s Sound of the Baskervilles and one of our most active Members has sent along a very interesting question. She refers to the Sherlock Peoria blog and a posting that ask whether Mycroft might have passed away when “The Dying Detective” was written. Here is the link:
Margie wonders whether anyone would like to reason a response to this question. The premise of the theory is that if Holmes was dying Watson surely would have notified Mycroft, yet no mention of Mycroft is made.
