{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,4]],"date-time":"2026-05-04T00:44:15Z","timestamp":1777855455245,"version":"3.51.4"},"reference-count":39,"publisher":"SAGE Publications","issue":"1","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2013,7,12]],"date-time":"2013-07-12T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1373587200000},"content-version":"tdm","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/journals.sagepub.com\/page\/policies\/text-and-data-mining-license"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["journals.sagepub.com"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["J Med Biogr"],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2014,2]]},"abstract":"<jats:p>When the Anglo-Boer War broke out in October 1899, Arthur Conan Doyle, a retired ophthalmologist, was already famous as the creator of Sherlock Holmes. Motivated by patriotism and adventure, Doyle joined the medical staff of a private field hospital endowed by philanthropist John Langman (1846\u20131928). Langman Hospital opened in Bloemfontein, South Africa, at the height of that city\u2019s typhoid fever epidemic which raged from April to June 1900. There were nearly 5000 cases of typhoid and 1000 deaths but official statistics do not truly reflect the magnitude of the suffering. Doyle argued that the British Army had made a major mistake by not making antityphoid inoculation compulsory. Because of the new vaccine\u2019s side effects, 95% of the soldiers refused immunization. Despite his strong opinions, Doyle failed to press the issue of compulsory inoculation when he testified before two Royal Commissions investigating the medical and military management of the war in South Africa. One can only imagine how the army might have benefited from the new idea of prophylactic vaccination in preventive medicine if Doyle had not let these opportunities slip away. As a consequence, antityphoid inoculation was still voluntary when Great Britain entered World War I in August 1914.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1177\/0967772013493239","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2013,7,13]],"date-time":"2013-07-13T00:56:07Z","timestamp":1373676967000},"page":"2-8","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1177\/sage-journals-update-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":6,"title":["Arthur Conan Doyle (1859\u20131930): Physician during the typhoid epidemic in the Anglo-Boer War (1899\u20131902)"],"prefix":"10.1177","volume":"22","author":[{"given":"Vincent J","family":"Cirillo","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Independent Scholar, North Brunswick, NJ, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"179","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2013,7,12]]},"reference":[{"key":"bibr1-0967772013493239","first-page":"127","volume":"28","author":"Cirillo VJ","year":"2008","journal-title":"Sherlock Holmes Journal"},{"key":"bibr2-0967772013493239","unstructured":"Clifton Rugby Football Club History: George Turnavine Budd. http:\/\/www.cliftonrfchistory.co.uk\/other\/gtbudd\/gtbudd.htm. Accessed February 14, 2013."},{"key":"bibr3-0967772013493239","volume-title":"Typhoid fever: its nature, mode of spreading, and prevention","author":"Budd W","year":"1873"},{"key":"bibr4-0967772013493239","unstructured":"Pascal JB. Arthur Conan Doyle: beyond Baker Street, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000, pp. 52\u201352."},{"key":"bibr5-0967772013493239","unstructured":"Doyle AC. Memories and adventures, Boston: Little, Brown, 1924, pp. 20\u201321."},{"key":"bibr6-0967772013493239","unstructured":"Doyle AC. (op. cit. Ref. 5) p.69."},{"key":"bibr7-0967772013493239","unstructured":"Doyle AC. (op. cit. Ref. 5) pp.89\u201390."},{"key":"bibr8-0967772013493239","unstructured":"Morley C. In memoriam Sherlock Holmes. In:\n                      The Complete Sherlock Holmes\n                      . New York: Garden City Books, 1936, p.xi."},{"key":"bibr9-0967772013493239","unstructured":"Lycett A. The man who created Sherlock Holmes: the life and times of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, New York: Free Press, 2007, pp. 197, 266\u2013197, 266."},{"key":"bibr10-0967772013493239","unstructured":"Lellenberg J, Stashower D, Foley C. Arthur Conan Doyle: a life in letters, New York: Penguin Press, 2007, pp. 427, 433\u2013427, 433."},{"key":"bibr11-0967772013493239","unstructured":"Lycett A. (op. cit. Ref. 9) p.266."},{"key":"bibr12-0967772013493239","volume-title":"The Great Anglo-Boer War","author":"Farwell B","year":"1976"},{"key":"bibr13-0967772013493239","volume-title":"The Transvaal rebellion: the First Boer War 1880--1881","author":"Laband J","year":"2005"},{"key":"bibr14-0967772013493239","unstructured":"Farwell B. (op.cit. Ref. 12) pp.43, 46\u201347."},{"key":"bibr15-0967772013493239","unstructured":"Farwell B. (op.cit. Ref. 12) pp.378\u2013391."},{"key":"bibr16-0967772013493239","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1093\/oso\/9780198233640.001.0001"},{"key":"bibr17-0967772013493239","first-page":"257","volume":"15","author":"Simpson RJS","year":"1910","journal-title":"Journal of the Royal Army Medical Corps"},{"key":"bibr18-0967772013493239","first-page":"125","volume":"14","author":"Simpson RJS","year":"1910","journal-title":"Journal of the Royal Army Medical Corps"},{"key":"bibr19-0967772013493239","volume-title":"Bullets and bacilli: the Spanish-American war and military medicine","author":"Cirillo VJ","year":"2004"},{"key":"bibr20-0967772013493239","unstructured":"Doyle AC. (op.cit. Ref. 5) p.157."},{"key":"bibr21-0967772013493239","unstructured":"Menpes M. War impressions, London: Adams & Charles Black, 1903, pp. 152\u2013154."},{"key":"bibr22-0967772013493239","unstructured":"Menpes M. (op.cit. Ref. 21) p.153."},{"key":"bibr23-0967772013493239","volume-title":"A civilian war hospital: being an account of the work of the Portland Hospital, and of experience of wounds and sickness in South Africa, 1900","author":"Bowlby AA","year":"1901"},{"key":"bibr24-0967772013493239","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1353\/pbm.2006.0005"},{"key":"bibr25-0967772013493239","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"49","DOI":"10.1136\/bmj.2.2062.49","volume":"2","author":"Doyle AC","year":"1900","journal-title":"British Medical Journal"},{"key":"bibr26-0967772013493239","volume-title":"The Plato of Praed Street: the life and times of Almroth Wright","author":"Dunnill M","year":"2000"},{"key":"bibr27-0967772013493239","unstructured":"Churchill WS. London to Ladysmith via Pretoria, New York: Longmans, Green & Co, 1900, pp. 10\u201311."},{"key":"bibr28-0967772013493239","unstructured":"Doyle AC. The Great Boer War, London: Thomas Nelson, 1903, pp. 279\u2013280."},{"key":"bibr29-0967772013493239","unstructured":"Doyle AC. (op.cit. Ref. 5) pp.154, 180\u2013181."},{"key":"bibr30-0967772013493239","unstructured":"Great Britain.\n                      Parliament. House of Commons. Cd. 454\n                      . Minutes of evidence taken before the Royal Commission Appointed to Consider and Report upon the Care and Treatment of the Sick and Wounded During the South African Campaign, London: HMSO, 1901, pp. 82\u201383."},{"key":"bibr31-0967772013493239","unstructured":"Great Britain.\n                      Parliament. House of Commons. Cd.1791\n                      . Minutes of evidence taken before the Royal Commission on the War in South Africa, London: HMSO, 1903, pp. 2: 472\u2013474."},{"key":"bibr32-0967772013493239","unstructured":"Burdett-Coutts W. Our wars and our wounded. IX.\n                      Times\n                      (London), 27 June 1900, p.4."},{"key":"bibr33-0967772013493239","unstructured":"Editorial.\n                      Times\n                      (London), 27 June 1900, p.11."},{"key":"bibr34-0967772013493239","unstructured":"Doyle AC. The war in South Africa: its cause and conduct, London: Smith, Elder, 1902, pp. 94\u2013106."},{"key":"bibr35-0967772013493239","unstructured":"Carr JD. The life of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, New York: Harper & Brothers, 1949, pp. 155\u2013161."},{"key":"bibr36-0967772013493239","unstructured":"Judd D, Surridge K. The Boer War, New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003, pp. 295\u2013296."},{"key":"bibr37-0967772013493239","unstructured":"Klinger LS. The new annotated Sherlock Holmes 2006; Vol. 3, New York: W Norton, pp. 414\u2013414."},{"key":"bibr38-0967772013493239","first-page":"85","volume":"25","author":"Green RL","year":"2001","journal-title":"Sherlock Holmes Journal"},{"key":"bibr39-0967772013493239","unstructured":"Carr JD. (op.cit. 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