Dr. Watson is called to tend Holmes, who is apparently dying of a rare tropical disease, Tapanuli fever, contracted while he was on a case.

It emerges, to the hiding Watson's horror, that Holmes has been sickened by the same illness that killed Smith's nephew Victor Savage.

Smith then sees the little ivory box, which he had sent to Holmes by post, and which contains a sharp spring infected with the illness.

Starving himself for three days and the claim of the "disease's" infectious nature was to keep Watson from examining him and discovering the ruse, since, as he clarifies, he has every respect for his friend's medical skills.

The New Annotated Sherlock Holmes has a note for this word: In this instance, "reversion" refers to the undisposed-of part of an estate, which will presumably fall into possession of the original grantor or his representative.

Canonical scholar Leslie S. Klinger wondered if Morton was the companion to Inspector Brown in The Sign of the Four.

[3] Tropical disease specialist William A. Sodeman Jr., proposed that "Tapanuli fever" was melioidosis,[4] a conclusion supported by physician Setu K.

[5] Vora raised the possibility that Conan Doyle read the first report of melioidosis published in 1912 before writing his short story in 1913.

"The Adventure of the Dying Detective" was published in the US in Collier's on 22 November 1913, and in the UK in The Strand Magazine in December 1913.