The Mind Creative DEC 2013
He wrote many textbooks on
medicine and was a Fellow of the
Royal College of Surgeons of
Edinburgh, a Justice of the
Peace, and a Deputy Lieutenant.
Joseph Bell died on 4th October
1911.
Doyle, during the 1870's,
worked for Dr. Bell as his outpatient clerk in Edinburgh Royal
Infirmary and was able to
observe Bell’s amazing powers
of observation and deduction at
close quarters. Joseph Bell was
Dr. Joseph Bell
sometimes able to diagnose
patients before they could
describe their symptoms and
On one occasion, Doyle was
even guess their occupations.
present when Dr. Bell observed a
new patient and announced that
the patient was a recently
discharged non-commissioned
officer, who had been serving in
a Highland regiment stationed in
Barbados. Later, Bell explained
to his students, "You see,
gentlemen, the man were a
respectful man but did not
remove his hat. They do not in
the army, but he would have
learned civilian ways had he been
long discharged. He has an air of
authority and is obviously
Scottish. As to Barbados, his
Sherlock Holmes
complaint is elephantiasis, which
is West Indian and not British."
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