The Isle of Devils (60 page)


        
In 1876, lawn tennis, a game devised by Major Walter Clopton Wingfield a year earlier and originally called ‘
Sphairistike’
(ancient Greek for ‘the art of playing ball’), was added to the activities of the All England Croquet Club in Wimbledon. In the spring of 1877, the club was re-titled ‘The All England Croquet and Lawn Tennis Club’ and signaled its change of name by instituting the first Lawn Tennis Championship. A new code of laws (replacing the code until then administered by the Marylebone Cricket Club) was drawn up for the event. Today's rules are similar except for details such as the height of the net and posts and the distance of the service line from the net. The only event held in 1877 was the Gentlemen's Singles, which was won by Spencer Gore, from a field of twenty-two. Gore lost to Frank Hadow in 1878. There are no records of an Antonio Cordeiro participating in the early tournaments, so he was either lying or perhaps played under an assumed name to hide his foreign origin?

CHAPTER XIV: THE EVIDENCE OF THE BOHEMIAN PHYSICIAN


        
The Lancet
is one of the world's oldest general medical journals, founded in 1823 by Thomas Wakley, an English surgeon. It is hardly surprising to find Dr. Nemcek reading it.


        
Watson was clearly conversant in German, as he had no problems when Holmes quoted from Goethe (Chapters VI & XII,
The Sign of the Four
). “
Mit der dummheit kämpfen götter selbst vergebens
,” which indeed translates as “against stupidity the gods themselves contend in vain,” is from
The Maid of Orleans
(1801) a play by the other great German romantic poet Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller (1759 – 1805), most famous for his
Ode to Joy
later utilized by Beethoven.


        
Although Dr. Nemcek trained in Montpellier, we can assume that he was not an acquaintance of either the murderer Lefevre, or the poisoner Leturier (Chapters I & VII,
A Study in
Scarlet
), nor did he overlap with Holmes who did research into coal derivatives there during the Great Hiatus. Ainstree later moved to London where he became recognized as “the greatest living authority upon tropical disease” (
The Adventure of the Dying Detective
).


        
Barring a monstrous coincidence, when Dr. Nemcek refers to Antonín
Dvo
ř
á
k, it seems likely that this is actually the same as
‘Mr. A. Dorak,’ Professor Lowenstein’s London agent (
The Adventure of the Creeping Man
). As the surname ‘Dorak’ is actually of Turkish origin (from the town of the same name on the shores of Lake Apolyont with some royal tombs of an age near to that of fabled Troy), it is obvious that either Watson or the printer John Murray made a spelling mistake, and the man’s “curious,” “Slavonic” name was actually meant to be ‘
Dvo
ř
á
k
.’ Dr. Nemcek was thirty-three years of age in 1880 (when the events of the Bermuda Manuscript unfolded), and Dr. Watson was not to hear the name ‘Dorak’ again until 1903. Since ‘Dorak’ was Nemcek’s uncle, he likely was at least twenty years his elder, or approximately seventy-six years old. Given that the average life expectancy at the turn of the century was less than sixty years, it is reasonable for Holmes’ agent to describe ‘Dorak’ as “elderly.”


        
Constable Dunkley’s warning about Chicago was quite valid. Crooks like Killer Evans (The Adventure of the Three Garridebs) and Abe Slaney and Mr. Patrick of the Joint gang (
The Adventure of the Dancing Men
) were known to terrorize the streets of Chicago in the days before the turn of the twentieth century.


        
The Aberdeen Shipping Company used by Dr. Nemcek had offices in London, where Mrs. St. Clair went to pick up a small parcel of considerable value (
The Man with the Twisted Lip
).


        
Dr. Nemcek was correct about the word ‘pistol’ being the only word in the English language derived from the Czech. However, this singularity lasted only for another forty years, until the word ‘robot’ was introduced to the public by the Czech writer Karel
Č
apek in his play
R.U.R. (Rossum's Universal Robots
; 1920).


        
‘Si vis pacem para bellum,’
translates to ‘If you wish for peace, prepare for war.’ Any physician of the Victorian era would be very well acquainted with Latin. Watson was able to recognize it whenever Holmes tossed out a Latin saying (e.g. Chapter VII,
A Study in Scarlet
). 


        
The cataract knife in the possession of Dr. Nemcek is very similar to the one utilized by Mr. John Straker, though Straker’s was made by Weiss & Co. (
Silver Blaze
). Nemcek carried his hypodermic syringe in a morocco case, as did Sherlock Holmes (Chapter I,
The Sign of the
Four
). The empty phials found in Dr. Nemcek’s satchel are reminiscent of those found in Professor Presbury’s box (
The Adventure of the Creeping Man
).


        
The Hippocratic Oath, which may or may not have actually been written by Hippocrates, was first spoken as part of the modern graduation ceremony of new physicians in Wittenberg, Germany, in 1508. The version that Watson paraphrases from went:
“I swear by Apollo the Physician and Asclepius and Hygieia and Panaceia and all the gods, and goddesses, making them my witnesses, that I will fulfill according to my ability and judgment this oath and this covenant. To hold him who has taught me this art as equal to my parents and to live my life in partnership with him, and if he is in need of money to give him a share of mine, and to regard his offspring as equal to my brothers in male lineage and to teach them this art – if they desire to learn it – without fee and covenant; to give a share of precepts and oral instruction and all the other learning to my sons and to the sons of him who has instructed me and to pupils who have signed the covenant and have taken the oath according to medical law, but to no one else. I will apply dietic measures for the benefit of the sick according to my ability and judgment; I will keep them from harm and injustice. I will neither give a deadly drug to anybody if asked for it, nor will I make a suggestion to this effect. In purity and holiness I will guard my life and my art. I will not use the knife, not even on sufferers from stone, but will withdraw in favor of such men as are engaged in this work. Whatever houses I may visit, I will come for the benefit of the sick, remaining free of all intentional injustice, of all mischief and in particular of sexual relations with both female and male persons, be they free or slaves. What I may see or hear in the course of treatment or even outside of the treatment in regard to the life of men, which on no account one must spread abroad, I will keep myself holding such things shameful to be spoken about. If I fulfill this oath and do not violate it, may it be granted to me to enjoy life and art, being honored with fame among all men for all time to come; if I transgress it and swear falsely, may the opposite of all this be my lot.”
There are several reasons why this antiquated version of the Oath has been updated by modern medical schools!

CHAPTER XV: THE EVIDENCE OF THE TURKISH ENGINEER


        
The tools that Dunkley describes are a pure picklock kit, as opposed to the broader “up-to-date burgling kit,” with its jemmy and glass cutter, utilized by Holmes during one of his less legal escapades (
The Adventure of Charles Augustus Milverton
).


        
It is highly appropriate that Mr. Bey would smoke a meerschaum pipe, as Turkey is the main source of that soft mineral. Although commonly depicted as such, there is no evidence in the Canon that Holmes ever smoked such a pipe (clay and cherry-wood were the two undisputed descriptions of Holmes’ pipes).


        
Sadly, the cruel
Abdul
-Hamid would not be deposed for another twenty-nine years (1909).  Surprisingly, in 1903 Holmes would admit to taking a commission from him (
The Adventure of the Blanched Soldier
). There may have been extenuating circumstances to explain this lapse in moral judgment, or perhaps Holmes was actually working as a double agent for the forces of the Young Turks opposed to the Sultan?


        
Like Mr. Bey, Victor Hatherley also apprenticed at Venner and Matheson, the well-known firm of Greenwich (
The Adventure of the Engineer’s Thumb)
. George Stephenson (1781 – 1848) was the English engineer who built the first public railway line in the world to use steam locomotives, and was renowned as being the “Father of Railways.”


        
As mentioned in Chapter III, Watson would come to learn about the dangers of the railway profession first hand when he established a practice near Paddington Station (
The Adventure of the Engineer’s Thumb
).


        
Watson eventually takes Bey’s advice about Turkish baths (
The Disappearance of Lady Frances Carfax
), and even draws Holmes into the habit, as evidenced by their visit together (
The Adventure of the Illustrious Client
).


        
Bey’s reference to Gioachino Rossini’s opera
La Cenerentola
(1817) is a confusing one, since the opera does not utilize the plot device of the fitted slipper, but instead has a pair of bracelets. Bey must have been thinking of Charles Perrault’s version of the tale (1697).


        
The reference to the Turkish or Persian slipper brings to mind the one owned by Holmes. It only appears three times in the Canon (
The Musgrave Ritual &
The Adventures of the Naval Treaty & The Empty House
), but its fame as the repository for his shag tobacco far eclipses those few mentions.

CHAPTER XVI: THE EVIDENCE OF THE GREEK PUGILIST