Mr. Sherlock Holmes夏洛克福尔摩斯第1章 夏洛克福尔摩斯Chapter 1 Mr. Sherlock Holmes华生，一八七八年在伦敦大学取得医学博士 学位，曾参加国外战争，在旺德战役中负伤回国 休养。回国后华生住在一家私人旅馆，后来由于经 济原因，想找一个便宜点的住处。一天，他和包 扎护士史丹佛闲谈时，史丹佛说在医院化学试验室工作的夏洛克福尔摩斯正好想找人合租房子。他是个一流的化学师，而且对解剖学很精通。华生想见一见福尔摩斯。在去医院的路上，史丹佛对此事有点儿担心：福尔摩斯的性格及一些古怪的做法使他担心他们合不来。试验室只有福尔摩斯一个人在做试验，听到他们的脚步声，他高兴地走过来告诉大家自己终于找到了一种只沉淀血红素，而不和其他物质产生反应的试剂。史丹佛为他俩做了介绍，福尔摩斯推断出华生从阿富汗回来，并拉着他来到桌旁，从手上取了一点血放入一公升的水中，然后将一点点结晶放入容器，再放入一些滴过血的水，水变成红褐色而沉淀出一些棕色的微小颗粒，他向大家解释一个人在案发几个月后被怀疑，用这种方法测试嫌疑犯衣服上的污渍就可以判断出是不是血迹。史丹佛告诉福尔摩斯华生想找住处，因此想把他们凑在一起。福尔摩斯很高兴地告诉他们自己在贝克街看中了一套房子。于是两人都将自己的爱好和习惯都说了出来，并约定次日中午去看房子。华生和史丹佛告别福尔摩斯出来，仍然不知道他怎么知道自己是从阿富汗回来的。I n the year 1878 I took my degree of Doctor of Medicine of the University of London, and proceeded to Netley to go through the course prescribed for surgeons in the Army. Having completed my studies there, I was duly attached to the Fifth Northumberland Fusiliers as assistant surgeon. The regiment was stationed in India 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 enemys country. I followed, however, with many other officers who were in the same situation as myself, and succeeded in reaching Candahar in safety, where I found my regiment, and at once entered upon my new duties.The campaign brought honours and promotion to many, but for me it had nothing but misfortune and disaster. I was removed from my brigade and attached to the Berkshires, with whom I served at the fatal battle of Maiwand. There I was struck on the shoulder by a Jezail bullet, which shattered the bone and grazed the subclavian artery. I should have fallen into the hands of the murderous Ghazis had it not been for the devotion and courage shown by Murray, my orderly, who threw me across a packhorse, 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 at Peshawar. Here I rallied, and had already improved so far as to be able to walk about the wards, and even to bask a little upon the veranda,when I was struck down by enteric fever, that curse of our Indian possessions. For months my life was despaired of, and when at last I came to myself and became convalescent, I was so weak and emaciated that a medical board determined that not a day should be lost in sending me back to England. I was despatched, accordingly, in the troopship Orontes, and landed a month later on Portsmouth jetty, with my health irretrievably ruined, but with permission from a paternal government to spend the next nine months in attempting to improve it.I had neither kith nor kin in England, and was therefore as free as airor as free as an income of eleven shillings and sixpence a day will permit a man to be. Under such circumstances I naturally gravitated to London, that great cesspool into which all the loungers and idlers of the Empire are irresistibly drained. There I stayed for some time at a private hotel in the Strand, leading a comfortless, meaningless existence, and spending such money as I had, considerably more freely than I ought. So alarming did the state of my finances become, that I soon realized that I must either leave the metropolis and rusticate somewhere in the country, or that I must make a complete alteration in my style of living. Choosing the latter alternative, I began by making up my mind to leave the hotel, and take up my quarters in some less pretentious and less expensive domicile.On the very day that I had come to this conclusion, I was standing at the Criterion Bar, when someone tapped me on the shoulder, and turning round I recognized young Stamford, who had been a dresser under me at Barrs. The sight of a friendly face in the great wilderness of London is a pleasant thing indeed to a lonely man. In old days Stamford had never been a particular crony of mine, but now I hailed him with enthusiasm, and he, in his turn, appeared to be delighted to see me. In the exuberance of my joy, I asked him to lunch with me at the Holborn, and we started off together in a hansom.“Whatever have you been doing with yourself, Watson?” he asked in undisguised wonder, as we rattled through the crowded London streets. “You are as thin as a lath and as brown as a nut.”I gave him a short sketch of my adventures, and had hardly concluded it by the time that we reached our destination.“Poor devil!” he said, commiseratingly, after he had listened to my misfortunes. “What are you up to now?”“Looking for lodgings,” I answered. “Trying to solve the problem as to whether it is possible to get comfortable rooms at a reasonable price.”“Thats a strange thing,” remarked my companion; “you are the second man today that has used that expression to me.”“And who was the fir