Editors’ Note

In 1880, Arthur Conan Doyle wrote a diary of his adventures as a ship’s surgeon on an Arctic whaler. It is a true story and that diary has been available to Sherlock Holmes fans for many years.

Until now, however, three of Doyle’s other diaries about his international adventures had gone undiscovered. In a historic twist of fate, we were fortunate to recently find these three ‘lost’ diaries hidden in the compartment of a trunk purchased at auction and said to include some of the personal effects of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

The first diary contains stories from 1878 when Doyle was a nineteen-year-old student at the University of Edinburgh Medical School. These tales of high adventure begin with Conan Doyle’s clerkship under the legendary Doctor Joseph Bell and follow the duo (and other well-known personalities) on their journey to America for a secret forensic mission to solve a string of grisly and mysterious murders.

The third, soon-to-be-published, diary in this trio of mayhem, murder, and medicine adventure stories, is a record of Doyle’s experiences in 1883. It includes personal details from Doyle’s second trip with Dr. Bell from Scotland to America, by which time he had become a doctor in his own right.

In the diary you now hold, the second of the ‘lost’ three, Doyle recorded his 1881 journey with Dr. Joseph Bell, this time to Russia, immediately following his graduation. It reveals how, despite initially being invited to teach the antiseptic technique at the medical school in St. Petersburg, the two became embroiled in nefarious conspiracies that could have engulfed Europe in a deadly war. If not for their abilities to discern all details and leave no stone unturned, we might have had a very different twentieth century...

We are including the following points of information with the hope that they offer some context and clarity about young Arthur Conan Doyle and these journeys.

• There is some controversy as to whether Bell was the inspiration for Sherlock Holmes, though a handwritten letter from Arthur Conan Doyle to Dr. Bell, which is housed in the archives [RS L1 Box B] of the Royal College of Surgeons in Edinburgh, states, “It is most certainly to you that I owe Sherlock Holmes.”
• These three diaries indicate a somewhat thorny relationship between Dr. Joseph Bell and Arthur Conan Doyle. In his own words, Doyle was a mediocre medical student. But Bell observed in him talents that went beyond the usual student, hence his choice of Doyle to be his outpatient clerk. Dr. Bell, a third-generation Edinburgh surgeon and true medical aristocrat, could be hard on students. Doyle was acutely aware of his own humble background. His father was addicted to alcohol and his mother, whom he affectionately referred to as ‘Mam,’ took in lodgers to support the family. It is quite possible that, especially after the first trip to America, Doyle hoped Bell would become a replacement ‘father figure,’ but Bell continued to treat him as any other student. Doyle initially resented what he perceived as ‘humiliation’ by Bell. As his ability and confidence increased, a warmer relationship, based on mutual respect, grew between the two of them.
• These diaries demonstrate Dr. Bell’s medical and surgical skills. He was one of the first to use Lister’s antiseptic technique to prevent infection in wounds. Bell pioneered operations to save the limbs of children afflicted with tuberculosis of the bones and joints. He was in great demand to lecture and demonstrate his techniques to foreign surgeons. He was also an author, the first to support Nightingale nurses on his wards, and a forensic consultant to local police and Scotland Yard.
• While the diaries are also important because they document medical and surgical practices during the 19th century - when there were no X-rays, scans, or laboratory tests to guide doctors - this particular journal also explains Sherlock Holmes use of cocaine. At the time Doyle wrote this diary, many physicians, including Sigmund Freud, viewed cocaine as a panacea. It was also used as a powerful local anaesthetic. Surgeons who self-experimented with cocaine as a local anaesthetic quickly became addicted to the drug.
• Though he wrote in English, Arthur Conan Doyle was fluent in French and German and quickly learned basic Russian. Given that many of the entries in the diary appear to have been written during times of stress or several days after an event, and considering the great upheavals that have taken place in Russia since his visit, you may find an occasional minor variation in spelling. Additionally, in Great Britain (unlike in America or Russia), though physicians are called doctor, surgeons are referred to as mister. Because the ‘lost’ diaries traverse locales, you may notice the use of both titles depending upon who is addressing Doyle.

That said, it is with great joy that we now share with you, dear reader, the story of young Arthur Conan Doyle’s adventures during those fateful months in 1881 as detailed in his second of three fabulously exciting ‘lost journals.’ We hope you enjoy the journey.

- Dr. John Raffensperger and Richard Krevolin,

Oxford, England, 9 October 2016.