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EW IN OTHER NEWS 222 of self-experimentation, while in school Doyle experimented with the poison gelsemium, nearly dying in the process. He eventually recov- ered and recorded the toxic plant's effects, and would later explore the subject of poisons and toxins in many of the Sherlock Holmes stories. Doyle also began exploring his creative side while in medical school, writing several short stories. The 2 that were published reflected the influence of Edgar Alan Poe and Bret Harte, 2 of his favorite writers. Due to his family's financial struggles, Doyle compressed his classes and found work as a medical assistant. During his third year of school, Doyle took a job as a sur- geon aboard an Arctic whaling ship, sparking his sense of adventure and earning him extra income. Writing letters to his friends back home detailing the adventures of the ship, Doyle began to consider a career in literature. "It was in this year that I first learned that shillings might be earned in other ways than by filling phials," Doyle wrote in his autobi- ography. "Some friend remarked to me that my letters were very vivid and surely I could write some things to sell. I may say that the general aspiration towards literature was tremendously strong upon me." After graduating in 1881, Doyle set up a practice in Southsea, a suburb of Portsmouth, England. Although he was a general practi- tioner, Doyle worked at the Ports- mouth Eye and Ear Hospital under ophthalmologist Vernon Ford. There he learned refraction and other ophthalmic techniques, sparking his interest in ophthalmology. In his spare time Doyle contin- ued to write, publishing stories in several magazines but earning little money from them. With a meager writing income, "The idea of real success was still far from my mind," Doyle wrote in his autobiography. Doyle's medical expertise and fascination with the eye grew throughout the 1880s. He earned his doctor of medicine in 1885, and was married the same year, an event he described as a turning point in his life and career. "Up to now the main interest of my life lay in my medical career," Doyle wrote in his autobiography. "But with the more regular life and the greater sense of responsibility … the literary side of me began slowly to spread until it was destined to push the other entirely aside." From medicine to literature As the literary part of him grew, Doyle began to develop the charac- ter of Sherlock Holmes and wrote his first Holmes story, A Study in Scarlet, in 1886. Doyle modeled the character of Holmes after his medical school mentor, Joseph Bell, a remarkably astute physician and skillful diagnostician. Using Bell as a model, Doyle introduced Holmes as the first "scientific detective." "Poe's masterful detective, M. Dupin, had from boyhood been one of my heroes," Doyle wrote in his autobiography. "I thought of my old teacher Joe Bell, of his eagle face, of his curious ways, of his eerie trick of spotting details. If he were a detective he would surely reduce this fascinating but unorganized business to something nearer to an exact science … It was surely possi- ble in real life, so why should I not make it plausible in fiction?" A Study in Scarlet was published in 1887, but the Holmes fame would not take off for several more years. Doyle wrote more Holmes stories in his spare time and continued prac- ticing medicine but began to think about shifting his focus to ophthal- mology. On a train ride to Berlin in 1890, Doyle met Sir Malcolm Morris, a London dermatologist, who en- couraged him to study ophthalmol- ogy in Vienna and set up a practice in London. Recognizing that this was a relatively easy way for him to com- bine his writing and medical career, Doyle took Morris' advice. After a brief 2-month stay in Vienna and a few days studying in Paris, Doyle returned to London as a practicing ophthalmologist in the spring of 1891. Doyle's ophthalmological career was short-lived, however—that same spring, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, a collection of 6 Holmes stories, was published in the Strand Magazine. The stories earned Doyle more money in April of that year than 6 months of income in Ports- mouth, and after only a month, he decided to leave ophthalmology entirely and focus solely on writing. When the stories were published in book form a year later, they were an instant success. "It didn't take long before the public was absolutely entranced by this character," Dr. Ravin said. Even though he abandoned his medical practice, Doyle's passion for medicine and ophthalmology continued to influence his life and literary work. Doyle's own medical knowledge and experience imparted authenticity to the scientific aspects of the Holmes stories, possibly con- tributing to their success. In The Adventure of the Devil's Foot, Holmes and Watson test a poison on themselves. Watson's description of the effects are simi- lar to those of the Calabar bean, a poisonous plant from West Africa that Doyle had studied in medical school, and the experience itself may be a reference to the gelsemium Doyle experimented with during the same time. Medicine continued to be a driving force in Doyle's life outside of his literary career. He served as a physician during the second Boer War in South Africa and became involved with 2 legal cases where he felt there had been a miscarriage of justice, using his ophthalmological background to provide evidence that the alleged perpetrators did not commit the crimes for which they were accused (see sidebar). By the end of his career, Doyle had written 60 Sherlock Holmes stories, as well as various plays, romances, poetry, non-fiction, historical novels, and several fantasy and science fiction books. Doyle's medical background and writing tal- ent helped him to create captivating stories held together by an intrigu- ing character that remains a fixture in literature, film, and television even today. EW Editors' note: Dr. Ravin has no finan- cial interests related to his comments. Contact information Ravin: jamesravin@buckeye-express.com March 2015 Sir Arthur Conan Doyle continued from page 221 Stepping into Holmes' shoes A fter the death of his wife in 1906, Doyle used his medical background to overturn two convictions in legal cases where he believed there had been miscarriages of justice, using "scientific detective" skills just like his famous character did. In the first case, Doyle campaigned to exonerate George Edalji, a solicitor who had been convicted of mutilating horses and cattle. After reading about the Edalji case by chance in an obscure newspaper, Doyle conducted his own investigation of the crime, interviewing Edalji's family members and examining the crime scenes. He came to the conclusion that Edalji's uncorrected refractive error made it nearly impossible for him to have committed the crimes under the circumstances in which they were carried out. "If the whole land had been raked, I do not think that it would have been possible to find a man who was so unlikely, and indeed so incapable, of committing such actions," Doyle wrote in his autobiography. In the second case, Doyle came to the defense of Oscar Slater, a German man who was convicted of murdering an elderly woman. Although the case was complex, Doyle felt that the evidence was circumstantial and the alleged murder weapon was not compatible with the extent of trauma to the eye and brain. Doyle started newspaper campaigns, wrote letters to medical journals, and even wrote a small book, hoping to attract enough attention to the cases to have them reexamined. Doyle's tactics proved successful—both men were eventually exonerated and released from prison. EW

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