As we made our way to the hospital after leaving the Holborn, Stamford gave me a few more particulars about the gentleman whom I proposed to take as a fellow-lodger.
"You mustn't blame me if you don't get on with him," he said; "I know nothing more of him than I have learned from meeting him occasionally in the laboratory.
"You proposed this arrangement, so you must not hold me responsible."
"If we don't get on it will be easy to part company," I answered.
"It seems to me, Stamford," I added, looking hard at my companion (同伴), "that you have some reason for washing your hands of the matter. {1}
"Is this fellow's temper so formidable (可怕的), or what is it? Don't be mealy-mouthed (说话拐弯抹角的) about it."
"It is not easy to express the inexpressible," he answered with a laugh. "Holmes is a little too scientific for my tastes -- it approaches to cold-bloodedness.
"I could imagine his giving a friend a little pinch of the latest vegetable alkaloid (vegetable alkaloid，植物碱),
not out of malevolence (恶意), you understand, but simply out of a spirit of inquiry in order to have an accurate idea of the effects.
"To do him justice, I think that he would take it himself with the same readiness. He appears to have a passion for definite and exact knowledge."
"Very right too."
"Yes, but it may be pushed to excess. When it comes to beating the subjects (供解剖的尸体) in the dissecting-rooms with a stick, it is certainly taking rather a bizarre (难以相信的) shape."
"Beating the subjects!"
"Yes, to verify how far bruises may be produced after death. I saw him at it with my own eyes."
"And yet you say he is not a medical student?"
"No. Heaven knows what the objects of his studies are. But here we are, and you must form your own impressions about him."
As he spoke, we turned down a narrow lane and passed through a small side-door, which opened into a wing of the great hospital.
It was familiar ground to me, and I needed no guiding as we ascended the bleak stone staircase and made our way down the long corridor (走廊) with its vista of whitewashed wall and dun-coloured doors.
Near the further end a low arched passage branched away from it and led to the chemical laboratory.
This was a lofty chamber (房间), lined and littered with countless bottles.
Broad, low tables were scattered about, which bristled (竖起) with retorts (曲颈瓶), test-tubes, and little Bunsen lamps {2}, with their blue flickering flames.
There was only one student in the room, who was bending over a distant table absorbed in his work.
At the sound of our steps he glanced round and sprang to his feet with a cry of pleasure.
"I've found it! I've found it," he shouted to my companion, running towards us with a test-tube in his hand.
"I have found a reagent (试剂) which is precipitated by haemoglobin (血红蛋白), and by nothing else."
Had he discovered a gold mine, greater delight could not have shone upon his features. {3}
"Dr. Watson, Mr. Sherlock Holmes," said Stamford, introducing us.
"How are you?" he said cordially (热情地), gripping my hand with a strength for which I should hardly have given him credit. {4}
"You have been in Afghanistan, I perceive."
"How on earth did you know that?" I asked in astonishment.
"Never mind," said he, chuckling to himself. "The question now is about hoemoglobin. No doubt you see the significance of this discovery of mine?"
"It is interesting, chemically, no doubt," I answered, "but practically ----"
"Why, man, it is the most practical medico-legal (法医学的) discovery for years.
"Don't you see that it gives us an infallible test for blood stains (污点). Come over here now!"
He seized me by the coat-sleeve in his eagerness, and drew me over to the table at which he had been working.
"Let us have some fresh blood," he said, digging a long bodkin (刺针) into his finger, and drawing off the resulting drop of blood in a chemical pipette.
"Now, I add this small quantity of blood to a litre of water. You perceive that the resulting mixture has the appearance of pure water.
"The proportion of blood cannot be more than one in a million. I have no doubt, however, that we shall be able to obtain the characteristic reaction."
As he spoke, he threw into the vessel a few white crystals (晶体), and then added some drops of a transparent (透明的) fluid.
In an instant the contents assumed a dull mahogany (红褐色) colour, and a brownish dust was precipitated to the bottom of the glass jar.
"Ha! ha!" he cried, clapping his hands, and looking as delighted as a child with a new toy. "What do you think of that?"
"It seems to be a very delicate test," I remarked.
"Beautiful! beautiful! The old Guiacum test was very clumsy and uncertain. So is the microscopic examination for blood corpuscle (细胞).
"The latter is valueless if the stains are a few hours old. Now, this appears to act as well whether the blood is old or new.
"Had this test been invented, there are hundreds of men now walking the earth who would long ago have paid the penalty of their crimes." {5}
"Indeed!" I murmured.
"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 (亚麻布) 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.
