[ SECRET POST #3318 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #3318 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 02 pages, 026 secrets from Secret Submission Post #474.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[solticisekf]

I believe they still gave arsenic in small doses in those times, along with opiates for restless babies. I've a book on Victorian medicine which I (partly) read.

[(Anonymous)]

Right up to the 1950s for your two examples.

[solticisekf]

that's just sad.

[(Anonymous)]

Well yes, arsenic was an ingredient in some patent medicines, I don't think I indicated it wasn't. You're missing the main point, which was that Arthur Conan Doyle did not write Watson as prescribing arsenic to anyone. You don't need to say "screw realism" in order to make Watson NOT appear like a backward quack, because he doesn't appear so in the actual canon.

[solticisekf]

ACD didn't write anything about Watson's prescriptions. The point is it'd be comletely normal if Watson did that as it was considered a legimate treatment.
Eh, now I sound pedantic. What I mean is that I like Watson treating cold with soup and lots of liquids regardless of how historically correct it is.

[mimi-sardinia.livejournal.com]

Just pick the right-sounding soups and liquids.

[(Anonymous)]

Yep. Not sure why this is so difficult to understand for some.

[solticisekf]

"Have some instant noodles, Holmes!", I ejaculated, "In the meantime I'll ask our kind landlady for some martini".

[mimi-sardinia.livejournal.com]

LOL.

[(Anonymous)]

Yet he objected to Holmes' use of cocaine, which could be purchased over the counter as easily as you could buy a paper. So again, you don't have to throw out realism in order to make Watson a good doctor who still fits in with that time period.

Also yes, what mimi-sardinia.livejournal.com said. I'd avoid putting the phrase "drink plenty of fluids" into Watson's mouth because it sounds too modern. Likewise, I wouldn't have him say "Take two and call me in the morning" for the same reason. It would be fine and realistic for Watson to suggest soups and liquids for the treatment of a fever, but you'd have to choose the right ones. Watson would not be likely to recommend drinking lots of orange juice (a modern suggestion), for example, because citrus fruits weren't cheap you couldn't pick up a quart of OJ at the corner market. He would have recommended gruel, broth, tea, things of that nature. All perfectly fine by modern standards and also historically accurate.

So like I said, you seem to think that you'd HAVE to sacrifice realism and historical accuracy in order for Watson to be a good doctor, but that's not the case at all.

[solticisekf]

Watson treated Holmes's cocaine habbit like a doctor whould treat someone getting addicted to sleeping pills in our day, not as a drug addiction.

You shouldn't buy a quater of OJ anyway because it's packed full of sugar and not much better than soda.

You don't have to sucrifice realism but you could. What I'm saying, as a fic reader, a fic writer may as well skip the research on V medicine for me to enjoy their fic.

[tree_and_leaf]

I... don't get the distinction you're making here. They're both drug addictions. Cocaine was legal.

(Unless you mean that Holmes was doing cocaine for recreational reasons? Watson knew that and took it into account, because he was aware of when Holmes was more likely to use).

[solticisekf]

in reply to:
"Yet he objected to Holmes' use of cocaine, which could be purchased over the counter as easily as you could buy a paper."
Watson didn't object too strongly so he wasn't all that modern.

[(Anonymous)]

Well, I think that's a shame. I want my research (which is intensive and not just where medicine is concerned) as a writer to count. And lack of it puts me right off as a reader.

[solticisekf]

Yeah, to me facts are secondary. For example I may just skip a long geo location's name and read right over it. I'll easily forgive any inaccuracy if it's not too silly. That's just me though.)

[(Anonymous)]

Well, it wasn't a drug addiction, exactly. ACD made it clear that cocaine wasn't something Holmes did often, nor did the habit control him. He took it to relieve boredom when he didn't have a case, and Watson treated it with obvious disapproval because he felt it was a bad habit. The point was, Watson didn't necessarily think or behave as backwardly as some Victorians did, so there's no need to exaggerate his medical knowledge in order to write an accurate story.

You seemed to be implying that sacrificing realism was necessary in order to have Watson behave the "right" way, i.e. in keeping with what we know about modern medicine. I'm simply telling you that, no, it's not necessary. You can have both a competent Watson AND realism.

[solticisekf]

Well, it's not that I disagree with you completely, but I do disagree on some points. How is it possible for Watson to be better and less backwards than the official medicine at the time? He wasn't a medical genius with his own methods, he was just a good doctor for his time. For example the customary method of treating tuberculosis was bloodletting and starvation as well as traveling to a warmer climate, even in 1891!

Ehh, I don't buy a recreational drug use. Either it's a drug habbit or not. However ACD didn't explicitly say that Holmes was an addict, true.

[tree_and_leaf]

Some Victorian people were also aware of the risks associated with opium-laced baby-soothing patent medicines. Charlotte M Yonge's "The Trial" contains a harrowing scene when one of the main character's baby dies because of such medicine, which is basically an extended PSA against them.