Arthur Conan Doyle and the consumption cure

Abstract

Arthur Conan Doyle, a young physician in general practice in the provinces who had published some fiction, dashed to Berlin in November 1890 to attend and report on a demonstration of what had been eagerly announced as a new cure for tuberculosis, discovered by Robert Koch. This event is examined as a crisis point in Conan Doyle's career, and his various accounts of the episode scrutinized for what they show about his understanding of, and participation in, the discourses and professions of science and of letters, the kinds of knowledge they produce, and the sorts of responsibilities they entail. The Berlin experience, which exposed him to the workings of the scientific profession at the highest levels, was to be a crucial moment in the formation of Conan Doyle as man of letters.