The Case of George Edalji: A Question for Ophtalmologists

From The Arthur Conan Doyle Encyclopedia

The Case of George Edalji: A Question for Ophtalmologists is a letter written by Arthur Conan Doyle published in The British Medical Journal and The Lancet on 19 january 1907.



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The Case of George Edalji: A Question for Ophtalmologists

The British Medical Journal
(19 january 1907, p. 178)

Sir, — Might I ask you in the cause of justice to permit me to put the following question to those of your readers who are engaged in eye practice?

"Do you consider it physically possible for Mr. George Edalji, whose degree of myopic astigmatism as determined by retinoscopy under homatropine is

Right eye
— 8.75 diop. spher.
— 1.75 diop. cylind. axis 90°.

Left eye
— 8.25 diop. spher.

to have set forth without glasses on a pitch dark night with neither moon nor stars; to have crossed country for half a mile, climbing fences, finding gaps in hedges, and passing over a broad railway line; to have found and mutilated a pony which was loose in a large field, to have returned half a mile, and to have accomplished it all under thirty-five minutes, the limit of the possible time at his disposal?"

A consensus of scientific opinion upon this point would greatly aid me in getting justice for this young professional man, condemned for an offence which in my opinion he could not possibly have committed. — I am, etc.,

ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE
Hindhead, Surrey, Jan. 13th.