Summary

In Chapter 1, the narrator, Dr. John Watson, was in London. He had come back from Afghanistan, where he had been injured, and he needed time to recover. He was on a tight budget. A friend named Stamford happened to notice him. When Watson told Stamford that he was looking for an affordable place to rent, Stamford recalled that another friend of his—Sherlock Holmes—was also looking for someone to rent a place with.

Stamford introduced Watson to his peculiar friend, Holmes, at the chemistry laboratory where Holmes worked. Immediately, Holmes recognized that Watson has come from Afghanistan. Holmes was ecstatic because he had just discovered a re-agent that was precipitated by hemoglobin and by nothing else.

In Chapter 2, Watson continued to wonder about Holmes’ profession. He noticed that Holmes was knowledgeable about certain subjects, yet ignorant about others. For instance, whenever...