The following is an extract from the beginning of A Study in Scarlet, which is both the first Sherlock Holmes novel & also the first story; it is in fact the debut both of Dr John Watson, who is the narrator of the parts of the novel which involve Holmes directly, & of Sherlock Holmes himself. Watson has returned to England to recuperate after his involvement as a military doctor in the 2nd Afghan War - 1878-80 - (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Anglo-Afghan_War), where he was wounded at the Battle of Maiwand - 1880 - (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Maiwand), & subsequently suffered a very severe attack of what Conan Doyle calls enteric fever, which nowadays we call typhoid fever.
This exchange takes place during the very first conversation between Watson & Holmes, when they meet for the first time in the chemical laboratory at St. Bartholomew's Hospital in London. They have been introduced by a mutual acquaintance called Stamford, because Stamford knows that Holmes is looking for someone to share the rent of lodgings he has his eye on in Baker St., which he cannot afford to live in alone, & Watson has just told Stamford that he too is looking for somewhere cheap to live, or cheaper than a hotel at any rate.
The first speaker here is Holmes, the second Watson. Holmes is extremely excited because he has just discovered something he had been seeking, a reliable test for the presence of blood on an object:
" 'Criminal cases are continually hinging upon that one point. A man is suspected of a crime months perhaps after it has been committed. His linen or clothes are examined and brownish stains discovered upon them. Are they blood stains, or mud stains, or rust stains, or fruit stains, or what are they ? That is a question which has puzzled many an expert, and why ? Because there was no reliable test. Now we have the Sherlock Holmes test, and there will no longer be any difficulty.'
His eyes fairly glittered as he spoke, and he put his hand over his heart and bowed as if to some applauding crowd conjured up by his imagination.
'You are to be congratulated', I remarked, considerably surprised at his enthusiasm."
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