The Devil's Foot/Gen

[okapi1895.livejournal.com]

Author: okapi1895
Story: The Devil’s Foot

Rating: Gen

Author’s Note: Reference to Doyle’s experiment taking increasing doses of the poison genseminum, which he stopped due to the ‘persistent and prostrating diarrhoea’ and which he wrote about to the British Medical Journal in 1879 (full letter to the BMJ under the cut).

We waited for the room to clear. I made to rise from the grass plot, but fell back, weak.

Holmes winced and muttered, “Unjustifiable!”

At seeing him so frightfully raw, I took his hand. “My dear Holmes, that business with the gelseninum was far more troublesome. Remember the chamber pots?”

His dry reply heartened me. “I’m sure Mrs. Hudson does.”

GELSEMAINUNM AS A Poison.

SIR,-Some years ago, a persistent neuralgia led me to use the tincture of gelseminum to a considerable extent. I several times overstepped the maximum doses of the text-books without suffering any ill effects. Having recently had an opportunity of experimenting with a quantity of the fresh tincture, I determined to ascertain how far one might go in taking the drug, and what the primary symptoms of an overdose might be. I took each dose about the same hour on successive days, and avoided tobacco or any other agent which might influence the physiological action of the drug. Here are the results as jotted down at the time of the experiment. On Monday and Tuesday, forty and sixty minims produced no effect whatever. On Wednesday, ninety minims were taken at I0.30. At I0.50, on rising from my chair, I became seized with an extreme giddiness and weakness of the limbs, which, however, quickly passed off. There was no nausea or other effect. The pulse was weak but normal. On Thursday, I took 120 minims. The giddiness of yesterday came on in a much milder form. On going out about one o'clock, however, I noticed for the first time that I had a difficulty in accommodating the eye for distant objects. It needed a distinct voluntary effort, and indeed a facial contortion to do it. On Friday, I50 minims were taken. As I increased the dose, I found that the more marked physiological symptoms disappeared. To-day, the giddiness was almost gone, but I suffered from a severe frontal headache, with diarrhoea and general lassitude. On Saturday and Sunday, I took three drachms and 200 minims. The diarrhoea was so persistent and prostrating, that I must stop at 200 minims. I felt great depression and a severe frontal headache. The pulse was still normal, but weak. From these experiments I would draw the following conclusions. I. In spite of a case described some time ago in which 75 minims proved fatal, a healthy adult may take as much as go minims with perfect immunity. 2. In doses of from 90 to 120 minims, the drug acts apparently as a motor paralyser to a certain extent, causing languor, giddiness, and a partial paralysis of the ciliary muscle. 3. After that point, it causes headache, with diarrhoea and extreme lassitude. 4. The system may learn to tolerate gelseminum, as it may opium, if it be gradually inured to it. I feel convinced that I could have taken as much as half an ounce of the tincture, had it not been for the extreme diarrhoea it brought on.

Believe me, yours sincerely, A. C. D.

Comments

[scfrankles.livejournal.com]

I love the fact that Watson's first concern is for Holmes' feelings. And I love the dark humour to your story ^_^ (Poor, poor Mrs. Hudson...)

Also, I'd never heard of ACD's experiment before, so thank you for including his letter. Have to say there's a certain dark humour to that as well. It's hard not to give a rueful smile as ACD doggedly poisons himself and his symptoms get worse. And I'm sorry - that last sentence of his letter just straightforwardly makes me laugh ^^

[okapi1895.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it's a hilarious letter, he just keeps getting worse and worse and yet keeps taking it until basically the shits make him stop. I mean it makes me think that the average 'For Science!' fan fic is canon.

[debriswoman]

Beautifully linked in to the BMJ letter. The cavalier approach to medicine and experimentation is just wonderful:-p

[okapi1895.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I think that element of Holmes's character is definitely author-insert.

[thesmallhobbit.livejournal.com]

Poor, poor Mrs Hudson. You'd think Holmes would have learnt by now.

[okapi1895.livejournal.com]

I suspect she had the less glamorous part of his scientific explorations: the clean-up and, in this case, the slop-dumping :(

[gardnerhill.livejournal.com]

So Holmes gets his insane drive for self-experimentation naturally, from his parent (so to speak).

[okapi1895.livejournal.com]

Ha! yeah, the fictional acorn doesn't fall far from the author tree. and in this one it's really hard to say which one is the more self-insert. Poor ol' ACD.

[tripleransom.livejournal.com]

Hah! I believe Stamford said it all: "I could imagine his giving a friend a little pinch of the latest vegetable alkaloid, not out of malevolence, you understand, but simply out of a spirit of inquiry in order to have an accurate idea of the effects. To do him justice, I think that he would take it himself with the same readiness."

Thanks for posting the letter!

[okapi1895.livejournal.com]

You're welcome. Yes, that is it, exactly, your quote of Stamford. And I think--from the little I read last week--that the average physician at that time (before the advent of clinical trials being the norm) might have been more empathetic to that attitude.