- Dr. Watson redirects here. For the Microsoft Windows debugger, see
Dr. Watson (debugger). For the famous Geneticist and Nobel Prize recipient, see James D. Watson.
Dr John H. Watson is a fictional character, the friend, confidante and
biographer of Sherlock Holmes, the fictional 19th-century detective created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Various (extra-canonical) sources
give Watson's birth date as August 7, 1852 and his full name as
Dr John Hamish Watson. In large parts of the last two decades of the 1800s, Watson shared lodgings with Holmes and soon
emerged as the assistant and biographer of the great detective.
Watson's presence cements itself in his narratives of all four novels and 52 of the 56 original short-stories in the series;
of the remaining four, two are narrated by Holmes and the others are in the third person.
The original stories provide no details about Watson's life after 1914 (when he assisted Holmes one last time in the story
"His Last Bow"). Holmes' untiring biographer was apparently still alive in 1927,
when the last story ("The Adventure of Shoscombe Old Place")
appeared. According to Nicholas Meyer's revisionist novel The Seven-Per-Cent
Solution, Watson was still around in 1939, but apparently died that year or shortly afterwards.
Background and description
In the debut Holmes story A Study in Scarlet (published in 1888), Watson,
as the narrator, describes meeting Holmes, their subsequent sharing of rooms at 221B Baker
Street, his attempts to discover the profession of his taciturn companion, Holmes's eventual taking of Watson into his
confidence, and the events surrounding their first case together. Watson describes Holmes and his methods in detail, but in too
romantic and sentimental a manner for Holmes's taste. In time, they become close friends.
In The Sign of Four, John Watson met Mary
Morstan, who became his wife. Mary seemed somewhat less sure of her husband, however, absent-mindedly calling him "James"
in the short story "The Man with the Twisted Lip". This may be a simple
typographical error, though some have speculated that it is a wifely reference to Watson's unknown middle name, which could have
been "Hamish" (Scottish for "James").[1] Conan Doyle made mention of a second wife in The Illustrious Client and The Adventure of the Blanched Soldier, but this wife was never named nor
elaborated upon in subsequent tales. American author Michael Mallory began a series of
stories in the mid-1990s featuring this second wife, whom he called Amelia Watson.
Watson is a physician of some experience (as was Conan Doyle). Watson had served in the British
Army medical corps (attached to the 66th Foot) in Afghanistan, but was discharged
following an injury[2] received in the line of duty during
the Battle of Maiwand. Watson was almost killed in the long and arduous retreat from
the battle, but was saved by his orderly, Murray. It is possible that Doyle was inspired by the
survival of another physician in Afghanistan, Dr. William Brydon, although that event
occurred in 1842 during the First Anglo-Afghan War.
When Watson first returns from Afghanistan, he is "as thin as a lath and as brown as a nut." His more normal appearance is
hinted at in "The Adventure of Charles Augustus Milverton":
"... a middle-sized, strongly built man--square jaw, thick neck, moustache ...". In The Hound of the Baskervilles he notes that he is "reckoned fleet of foot". In
The Adventure of the Sussex Vampire we learn that Watson had
played rugby for Blackheath ( a very well-respected London club) .By 1914 (in the
story "His Last Bow"), he is described as "thickset". He is evidently not
ill-favored, as Holmes several times jokes about Watson's success with women.
Personality
Watson is not a stupid man (he is, after all, a medical doctor, and one whose talents Holmes holds in the highest esteem), but
he does not have Holmes' insight. He serves as a foil to Holmes: the ordinary man against the brilliant, emotionally-detached
analytical machine that Holmes can sometimes be. With the two, Conan Doyle created a clever literary pairing: two vivid
characters, different in their function and yet each useful for his purposes.
Watson is well aware of both the limits of his abilities and Holmes' reliance on him:
- [Holmes] was a man of habits... and I had become one of them... a comrade... upon whose nerve he could place some reliance...
a whetstone for his mind. I stimulated him... If I irritated him by a certain methodical slowness in my mentality, that
irritation served only to make his own flame-like intuitions and impressions flash up the more vividly and swiftly. Such was my
humble role in our alliance.
Watson also was the author of "Where to Go."
Conan Doyle portrays Watson as a capable and brave individual, whom Holmes does not hesitate to call upon for both moral and
physical assistance: "Quickly Watson, get your service revolver!" Watson occasionally
attempts to solve crimes on his own, using Holmes's methods. For example, in The Hound of the Baskervilles, Watson efficiently clears up several of the many
mysteries confronting the pair, and Holmes praises him warmly for his zeal and intelligence. However, because he is not endowed
with Holmes's almost-superhuman ability to focus on the essential details of the case, he meets with limited success in other
cases, as Holmes remarks: "Quite so... you see, but you do not observe." In the story "The Adventure of the Solitary Cyclist", Watson's attempts to help Holmes with an
investigation prove unsuccessful because of his unimaginative approach, e.g. asking a London estate agent who lives in a
particular country residence (according to Holmes, what he should have done was "gone to the nearest public house" and listened
to the gossip). Watson is too guileless to be a proper detective: he has a definite strain of "pawky humour", as Holmes observes
in The Valley of Fear; but he is naturally open and straightforward, while
Holmes can be secretive and devious.
Though initially their relationship was little more than vaguely acquainted roommates, the two became the very best of
friends, almost like brothers. By the time they shared "The Adventure of
the Three Garridebs", Holmes had such an attachment to his friend that he nearly panicked at the thought that Watson had
been shot. Watson wrote, "It was worth a wound – it was worth many wounds – to know the depth of loyalty and love which lay
behind that cold mask. The clear, hard eyes were dimmed for a moment, and the firm lips were shaking. For the one and only time I
caught a glimpse of a great heart as well as of a great brain. All my years of humble but single-minded service culminated in
that moment of revelation." Holmes returns to himself only when he is assured that Watson has been merely scratched by the
bullet, adding to the perpetrator: "If you had killed Watson, you would not have got out of this room alive."
Though he never masters Holmes's deductive methods, Watson is acute enough to follow his friend's reasoning after the fact. In
"The Adventure of the Norwood Builder", Holmes notes that John
Hector McFarlane is "a bachelor, a solicitor, a Freemason, and an asthmatic". Watson comments, in his narratorial role: "Familiar
as I was with my friend's methods, it was not difficult for me to follow his deductions, and to observe the untidiness of attire,
the sheaf of legal papers, the watch-charm, and the breathing which had prompted them." Similar episodes occur in
"The Adventure of the Devil's Foot", "The Adventure of the Solitary Cyclist", and "The Adventure of the Resident Patient".
While Watson lacked Holmes's brilliance, he was still a fully competent doctor, and his knowledge would prove useful on
several occasions. In The Adventure of Silver Blaze, his identification of a certain type
of surgical knife confirms Holmes's suspicions and helps him solve a crucial link in the mystery. In The Adventure of the Greek Interpreter, Watson's medical skill saves the life of
the client Mr. Melas, who was nearly killed by the story's villains with gas
poisoning.
Watson is something of a ladies' man (boasting in The Sign of Four of "an experience of women which extends over many
nations and three separate continents,") and fans of the Conan Doyle stories have long speculated as to just how many times he
was married.
Watson as Holmes' biographer
At the end of the first published Holmes story, A Study in Scarlet, Watson
is so impressed by Holmes’ elegant handling of the case that he exclaims: “Your merits should be publicly recognized. You should
publish an account of the case. If you won’t, I will for you.” Holmes suavely responds: “You may do what you like, Doctor.” Hence
Watson did write the story, presented as “a reprint from the reminiscences of John H. Watson”.
In the first chapter of the next story, The Sign of Four, Holmes comments
on Watson’s first effort as a biographer – but with a distinct lack of enthusiasm: “I glanced over it. Honestly, I cannot
congratulate you upon it. Detection is, or ought to be, an exact science and should be treated in the same cold and unemotional
manner. You have attempted to tinge it with romaticism… The only point in the case which deserved mention was the curious
analytical reasoning from effects to causes, by which I succeeded in unraveling it.”
Watson in his narrative admits that “I was annoyed at this criticism of a work which had been specially designed to please
him. I confess, too, that I was irritated by the egotism which seemed to demand that every line of my pamphlet should be devoted
to his own special doings. More than once during the years that I had lived with him in Baker Street I had observed that a small
vanity underlay my companion’s quiet and didactic manner.”
As these lines suggest, Watson in his later stories stopped trying to please Holmes and felt free to write about his friend
with astonishing frankness, sometimes commenting on his flaws and his arrogance as well as describing his successes. Holmes
apparently did not care, and also remained unimpressed by Watson’s “sketches” of his cases. In “The Adventure of Wisteria Lodge”, the detective acidly refers to “those narratives with
which you have afflicted a long-suffering public”. In “The Adventure of
the Blanched Soldier”, one of only two stories supposedly written by Holmes himself, the detective remarks about Watson:
“I have often had occasion to point out to him how superficial are his accounts and to accuse him of pandering to popular taste
instead of confining himself rigidly to facts and figures.” (Yet he also refers to Watson as “my old friend and biographer”.)
Outside the fiction, Holmes’ deprecating remarks on Watson’s narratives may be regarded as Conan Doyle’s self-ironic comments
on his own authorship. When for decades he continued to write new Holmes stories to satisfy an indulgent public, he may indeed
have seen himself as “pandering to popular taste”, since he felt that the Holmes character “may perhaps have stood a little in
the way of the recognition of my more serious literary work” (preface to The Case Book of Sherlock Holmes).
In “The Adventure of the Abbey Grange”, Holmes concedes to Watson
that “you have some power of selection, which atones for much which I deplore in your narratives.” Otherwise he maintained his
criticism: “Your fatal habit of looking at everything from the point of view of a story instead of as a scientific exercise has
ruined what might have been an instructive and even classical series of demonstrations. You slur over work of the utmost finesse
and delicacy, in order to dwell upon sensational details which may excite, but cannot possibly instruct, the reader.”
Watson, on the other hand, claimed that “in choosing a few typical cases which illustrate the remarkable mental qualities of
my friend, Sherlock Holmes, I have endeavoured, as far as possible, to select those which presented the minimum of
sensationalism, while offering a fair field for his talents”. He found, though, that it was “unfortunately impossible entirely to
separate the sensational from the criminal” (“The Adventure of the Cardboard
Box”).
Holmes sometimes accuses Watson of exaggerating his abilities. In “Silver Blaze”, Holmes
openly confesses: “I made a blunder, my dear Watson – which is, I am afraid, a more common occurrence than anyone would think who
only knew me through your memoirs.” When Holmes felt he had bungled something, he could exclaim: "Watson, Watson, if you are an
honest man you will record this also and set it against my successes!" (The
Hound of the Baskervilles, chapter 4.) In his prologue to “The
Adventure of the Yellow Face”, Watson himself remarked: “In publishing these short sketches [of Holmes’ cases]...it is
only natural that I should dwell rather upon his successes than upon his failures.”
Sometimes Watson (or rather Conan Doyle) seems determined to stop publishing stories about Holmes. In The Adventure of the Second Stain, Watson declares that he had intended the previous
story (“The Adventure of the Abbey Grange”) “to be the last of those
exploits of my friend, Mr. Sherlock Holmes, which I should ever communicate to the public”. But later Watson decided that “this
long series of episodes should culminate in the most important international case which he has ever been called upon to handle”
(The Second Stain being that case). Of course, the “long series of episodes” did in no way “culminate” in this story;
there were some twenty stories yet to come. Clearly Watson, or indeed Conan Doyle, did not foresee this at the time.
As stated at the beginning of "The Adventure of the Veiled
Lodger", Watson was able to cooperate with Holmes during 17 of the 23 years the detective was in active practice, keeping
"notes of his doings". Watson's published accounts are supposed to be based on these notes. In the later stories, written after
Holmes’ retirement (ca. 1903), Watson repeatedly refers to his notes about the various cases: “I have notes of many hundreds of
cases to which I have never alluded.” He explained that after Holmes’ retirement, the detective showed reluctance “to the
continued publication of his experiences. So long as he was in actual professional practice the records of his successes were of
some practical value to him, but since he has definitely retired…notoriety has become hateful to him” (“The Adventure of the Second Stain”). But during Holmes’ active career, the publicity
Watson gave to his cases was apparently good for business, however superficial Watson’s narratives may have seemed to the
detective.
After Holmes’ retirement, Watson often seems to depend on special permission from his friend for the publication of further
stories. Yet he could also receive unsolicited suggestions from Holmes for what stories to tell, as recounted at the beginning of
“The Adventure of the Devil's Foot". After receiving a telegram from
Holmes, Watson promptly started to “hunt out the notes which give me the exact details of the case and to lay the narrative
before my readers”.
The “notes” as such are described in some stories. Watson refers to “the three massive manuscript volumes which contain our
work for the year 1894”, confessing that “it is very difficult for me, out of such a wealth of material, to select the cases
which are most interesting” (“The Adventure of the Golden
Pince-Nez”). In “The Adventure of the Veiled Lodger”, Watson
speaks of “a long row of year-books which fill a shelf”, as well as “the dispatch-cases filled with documents, a perfect quarry
for the student not only of crime but of the social and official scandals of the late Victorian era”. The published sixty stories
are thus only a fraction of the total number of cases handled by Holmes during his career.
Despite the extensive notes referred to, sometimes it is not quite clear where Watson gets his information from. Part 2 of
A Study in Scarlet describes the early life of Jefferson Hope, detailing his
life in America and the events that finally resulted in him committing the crimes that Holmes has solved in Part 1. This former
part is clearly meant to be written by Watson, describing events he himself witnessed, but it is not clear how he could be the
author of Part 2. It gives the impression of being written by an omniscient author. We hear nothing of the extensive interviews
with Hope that Watson must have conducted if he were to be the writer of this part of the story as well.
The Valley of Fear is also split into two parts, Part 2 once again
detailing the earlier life of a protagonist in America. This time Conan Doyle did insert a minimal explanation for how Watson
came to possess the relevant information: In the last chapter of Part 1, the person in question hands Watson a “bundle of paper”
setting out his story, and he encourages the doctor to “tell it your own way”. Part 2 is written in a novel-like format and with
a remarkable amount of detail, suggesting that Watson felt free to greatly elaborate on the facts provided to him. (In
particular, it seems unlikely that the original “bundle of paper” would include lengthy, verbatim transcripts of conversations
that took place years earlier.)
The indiscreet chronicler
It can be said that Conan Doyle did not strictly adhere to the literary fiction that the various Holmes stories are Watson’s
reports of real-life events. If they were, their author would have been a person who on occasion could be both tactless and
indiscreet. At the beginning of “The Adventure of the Veiled Lodger”,
Watson makes strong claims about “the discretion and high sense of professional honour” that govern his work as Holmes’
biographer, but this is not always confirmed by the stories themselves.
Not only villains, but even Holmes’ clients are sometimes described in a less than flattering manner. In "The Red-Headed League", Watson introduces Jabez Wilson like this: “Our visitor bore every mark of
being an average commonplace British tradesman, obese, pompous, and slow” – wearing “a not over-clean black frock-coat”. In
"The Adventure of the Missing Three-Quarter", Cyril Overton
is said to be a man “more accustomed to using his muscles than his wits”. The latter case ends with Holmes uncovering a deep
personal tragedy, and a physician tells him: “I am sure that I can rely upon your discretion and that of your friend.” Watson’s
discretion clearly was not to be relied upon, since he wrote and published an account of the case.
Even Holmes himself is not always described in a very flattering terms. While Watson expresses the greatest admiration for
Holmes’ skills as a detective, he also divulges to the public certain details that his friend would likely consider private and
sensitive, if the great sleuth and his chronicler had been real people. Though the use of cocaine was quite legal in the 1800s,
it is questionable if Holmes would have liked to see published such detailed descriptions of his vice as the one Watson presents
in the first chapter of The Sign of Four. Elsewhere, Watson’s descriptions
of Holmes paint a picture of a man who is certainly brilliant, but also untidy, eccentric, somewhat vain and often rather
arrogant. Normally a writer would choose his words with more care when publishing accounts of the life of his closest friend.
It could be argued that Holmes, with his passion for exact statements, would recognize Watson’s descriptions as accurate and
actually prefer them to a more sanitized presentation of himself. It does, however, seem strange that Holmes would allow Watson
to publish occasional snotty comments about even the clients seeking Holmes’ help.
In the “The Adventure of the Bruce-Partington Plans”,
Holmes gives Watson information about his brother Mycroft Holmes that is clearly
confidential: “One has to be discreet when one talks of high matters of state.” Mycroft, Holmes reveals, serves a vital function
as a walking database for the government: “The conclusions of every department are passed to him, and he is the central
exchange…his specialism is omniscience.” This could obviously make Mycroft a target for Britain’s enemies, and his position
should be kept strictly secret. Yet Watson was not above publishing the confidential information Holmes had entrusted him with.
(The story is however set in 1895; since it was not published before 1912, we are perhaps to assume that Mycroft may have
retired or even died in the meantime, and so there was no need for secrecy anymore.)
At the end of "The Boscombe Valley Mystery", Watson writes about the
person Holmes found to be guilty of the murder concerned: “Old Turner lived for seven months after our interview, but he is now
dead; and there is every prospect that the son and daughter may come to live happily together in ignorance of the black cloud
which rests upon their past.” Unless, that is, they happened to pick up the issue of Strand
Magazine where Watson sets out a full account of the case! In real life, it would have been pure hypocrisy on Watson’s
part to express his hopes that these two would remain blissfully ignorant when he himself had just presented the whole story of
the murderous father to the public.
Sometimes, indeed, Watson talks about the need for discretion. The events related in “The Adventure of the Second Stain” are supposedly very sensitive: “If in telling the
story I seem to be somewhat vague in certain details, the public will readily understand that there is an excellent reason for my
reticence. It was, then, in a year, and even in a decade, that shall be nameless, that upon one Tuesday morning in autumn we
found two visitors of European fame within the walls of our humble room in Baker Street.”
But later in the same story, Watson twice includes substantial quotations from newspaper articles that were supposedly
published during the days when Holmes worked on this case. In the universe presupposed by the story, where these articles were
really in print, they would have allowed any thorough researcher to precisely date the events related by Watson – making nonsense
of his initial refusal to divulge the even the “decade” when this happened.
After identifying the perpetrator, Holmes in some stories decides to let him off the hook instead of exposing him. Examples
include "The Man with the Twisted Lip" and "The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle". At the end of "The Adventure of the Abbey Grange", Holmes even uses Watson himself as a one-man jury,
and the verdict is that the perpetrator should be allowed to walk free. Taken at face value, such stories would seem to be
self-defeating, since Watson did after all publish the identity of the perpetrator.
In “The Adventure of the Veiled Lodger”, Watson notes that he has
“made a slight change of name and place” when presenting that story. Possibly we are to assume that many of the stories are told
in a similar manner, pseudonyms replacing the “real” names of the people (and sometimes places) involved. Still, clients of
Holmes that brought sensitive cases to the detective might well have dreaded how they and their problems would later be portrayed
by Watson, who could sometimes be rather merciless and indiscreet in his descriptions. Even labeling the stories “adventures”
would in real life have been rather insulting: Given the murders and tragedies often involved, many of Holmes’ clients could
hardly have appreciated such playful and insensitive titles.
Yet if Conan Doyle had stuck more closely to the format a real Watson would likely have used when describing the exploits of a
real Holmes, this would hardly have improved the quality of the tales. Many colorful details would have had to be omitted, and
the depiction of the Great Detective would have been far more one-dimensional (a real Watson suppressing any unflattering details
to maintain his friendship with Holmes). Readers tend to be untroubled by the sometimes very obvious incongruity between the
theoretical format and the stories themselves – as when Watson publishes information that according to his own stories should
have remained secret indefinitely.
As archetype of the sidekick
In Conan Doyle's early rough plot outlines, he intended that the role of Watson would be filled by two junior detectives known
as Sandifer and Phillip; these characters were merged into "Watson." In turn, the introduction of Dr. Watson in the Holmes novels
proved a precursor to other, similar characters. Many of the great fictional detectives have their Watson: Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot, for example, is accompanied by
Captain Arthur Hastings.
- Watson also serves the important function of catalyst for Holmes's mental processes. [...] From the writer's point of view,
Conan Doyle knew the importance of having someone to whom the detective can make enigmatic remarks, a consciousness that's privy
to facts in the case without being in on the conclusions drawn from them until the proper time. Any character who performs these
functions in a mystery story has come to be known as a "Watson."
- In 1929, English crime writer and critic Ronald Knox stated as one of his rules for
fledgling writers of detective fiction as that -
- the stupid friend of the detective, the Watson, must not conceal from the reader any thoughts which pass through his mind;
his intelligence must be slightly, but very slightly, below that of the average reader."
Not necessarily a fool
In a number of film adaptations, in particular those featuring the comic skills of the actor Nigel Bruce, the character of Watson became more of a caricature. Far from being the able assistant as
presented by Conan Doyle, Watson was portrayed as an incompetent fool. Modern treatments have returned to the roots of Conan
Doyle stories and have portrayed a more sympathetic and competent Watson. The most famous example of this restored image of
Watson is the depiction played by David Burke and later Edward Hardwicke in the 1980s television series The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, starring Jeremy Brett in the title role. At the end of the episode "The Empty House", Watson, as played by
Hardwicke, even speaks the lines (given to Holmes in the story) about the criminal's motives, and receives Holmes' warm praise
for his acumen.
Another well-liked depiction was by actor André Morell in the 1959 film version of
The Hound of the Baskervilles. Morell was particularly
keen that his portrayal of Watson should be closer to that originally depicted in Conan Doyle's stories, and away from the
bumbling stereotype established by Nigel Bruce's interpretation of the role.[3] Other depictions include Donald Houston, who played Watson to
John Neville's Holmes in A Study in
Terror (1965); a rather belligerent, acerbic Watson portrayed by Colin Blakely
in Billy Wilder's The Private Life
of Sherlock Holmes (1970), in which Holmes was played by Robert Stephens (who
starts the rumor that they are homosexual lovers so women won't chase after him); and
James Mason's portrayal in Murder by Decree
(1978), with Christopher Plummer as Holmes. Ian
Hart portrayed a young, capable and fit Watson twice for BBC Television, once
opposite Richard Roxburgh as Holmes (in a 2002 adaptation of The Hound of the Baskervilles) and for a second time opposite
Rupert Everett as the Great Detective in the new story Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Silk Stocking (2004).
Stephen King, the American horror novelist, wrote a short story called "The Doctor's Case" in the collection Nightmares
& Dreamscapes, where Watson actually solves the case instead of Holmes.
In the 1988 parody film Without a Clue, the roles of a bumbling Watson and an extremely competent Holmes are reversed. In the
film, Holmes is an invention of Thomas played by an alcoholic actor to allow Watson to work on solving cases behind the
scenes.
Watson was also portrayed by English born actor Michael Williams for the BBC
Radio adaptation of the complete run of the Holmes canon from November 1989 to July 1998. Williams together with Clive Merrison, who played Holmes, are the only actors who have portrayed the Conan Doyle characters in all the short stories and novels of the canon. Williams take on Watson was
also close to the one depicted in the Conan Doyle stories.
Cultural references
Microsoft Corporation named the debugger in
Microsoft Windows "Dr. Watson"
In the television series House, the character of Dr. James Wilson is meant to be a direct reference to Watson (with House himself being a direct reference to Holmes). In addition to the similarity of their names, Wilson
serves in the show as House's only real friend and confidante, and occasionally assists him in solving particularly difficult
cases. (In one episode, House also claims to live in 221b Baker Street.) Also, in
keeping with Watson's role as a ladies' man, Wilson has been married several times and had multiple affairs.
In Batman stories the character of Robin was intended to be the Batman's Watson as
cocreator Jerry Robinson once wrote:
“ Robin was an outgrowth of a conversation I had with Bob(Kane). As I said, Batman was a combination of [Douglas] Fairbanks
and Sherlock Holmes. Holmes had his Watson. The thing that bothered me was that Batman didn't have anyone to talk to, and it got
a little tiresome always having him thinking. I found that as I went along Batman needed a Watson to talk to. That's how Robin
came to be. Bob called me over and said he was going to put a boy in the strip to identify with Batman. I thought it was a great
idea. ”
However in Later stries Character Alfred Pennyworth fills the roll better, being
the Dark Knight's Doctor, friend and confident. He also had a British military background where he practice medicine on the
Battle Field.
Notes
- ^ Dorothy from kansas and saddam hussein,
creator of the detective Lord Peter Wimsey, also wrote several essays on Holmesian
speculation, later published this theory in Unpopular Opinions
- ^ Watson gives two separate locations for the Jezail bullet wound he received while serving in the British Army. In "A
Study in Scarlet", he states, "I was struck on the shoulder by a Jezail bullet, which shattered the bone and grazed the
subclavian artery." However, in "The Sign of
Four", Watson informs us that he "sat nursing my wounded leg. I had had a Jezail bullet through it some time before, and
though it did not prevent me from walking it ached wearily at every change of the weather." "The Adventure of the Noble Bachelor" contains the only other reference to the
injury. Here Watson is a little ambiguous; he tells us "the Jezail bullet which I had brought back in one of my limbs as a relic
of my Afghan campaign throbbed with dull persistence."
- ^ Kinsey, Wayne (2002). Hammer Films - The Bray Studios Years. Richmond: Reynolds & Hearn Ltd, p. 133. ISBN 1-903111-11-0.
External links
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