A Study in Scarlet

IN the year 1878 I took my degree of Doctor of Medicine of the University ofLondon, and proceeded to Netley to go through the course prescribed for surgeonsin the army. Having completed my studies there, I was duly attached to the FifthNorthumberland Fusiliers as Assistant Surgeon. The regiment was stationed inIndia at the time, and before I could join it, the second Afghan war had broken out.On landing at Bombay, I learned that my corps had advanced through the passes,and was already...
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IN the year 1878 I took my degree of Doctor of Medicine of the University ofLondon, and proceeded to Netley to go through the course prescribed for surgeonsin the army. Having completed my studies there, I was duly attached to the FifthNorthumberland Fusiliers as Assistant Surgeon. The regiment was stationed inIndia at the time, and before I could join it, the second Afghan war had broken out.On landing at Bombay, I learned that my corps had advanced through the passes,and was already deep in the enemy's country. I followed, however, with many otherofficers who were in the same situation as myself, and succeeded in reachingCandahar in safety, where I found my regiment, and at once entered upon my newduties.The campaign brought honours and promotion to many, but for me it hadnothing but misfortune and disaster. I was removed from my brigade and attachedto the Berkshires, with whom I served at the fatal battle of Maiwand. There I wasstruck on the shoulder by a Jezail bullet, which shattered the bone and grazed thesubclavian artery. I should have fallen into the hands of the murderous Ghazis hadit not been for the devotion and courage shown by Murray, my orderly, who threwme across a pack-horse, and succeeded in bringing me safely to the British lines.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 atPeshawar. Here I rallied, and had already improved so far as to be able to walkabout the wards, and even to bask a little upon the verandah, when I was struckdown by enteric fever, that curse of our Indian possessions. For months my life wasdespaired of, and when at last I came to myself and became convalescent, I was soweak and emaciated that a medical board determined that not a day should be lostin sending me back to England. I was dispatched, accordingly, in the troopship"Orontes," and landed a month later on Portsmouth jetty, with my healthirretrievably ruined, but with permission from a paternal government to spend thenext nine months in attempting to improve it.