45745 We believe there has been a change from a town hospital to a country practice.
45746 Is it, then, stretching our inference too far to say that the presentation was on the occasion of the change?'
45747 'It certainly seems probable.'
45748 'Now, you will observe that he could not have been on the staff of the hospital, since only a man well-established in a London practice could hold such a position, and such a one would not drift into the country.
45749 What was he, then?
45750 If he was in the hospital and yet not on the staff, he could only have been a house-surgeon or a house-physician - little more than a senior student.
45751 And he left five years ago - the date is on the stick.
45752 So your grave, middle-aged family practitioner vanishes into thin air, my dear Watson, and there emerges a young fellow under thirty, amiable, unambitious, absent-minded, and the possessor of a favourite dog, which I should describe roughly as being larger than a terrier and smaller than a mastiff.'
45753 I laughed incredulously as Sherlock Holmes leaned back in his settee and blew little wavering rings of smoke up to the ceiling.
45754 'As to the latter part, I have no means of checking you,' said I, 'but at least it is not difficult to find out a few particulars about the man's age and professional career.'
45755 From my small medical shelf I took down the Medical Directory and turned up the name.
45756 There were several Mortimers, but only one who could be our visitor.
45757 I read his record aloud.
45758 Mortimer, James, MRCS, 1882, Grimpen, Dartmoor, Devon, House-surgeon, from 1882 to 1884, at Charing Cross Hospital.