"The Adventure of the Resident Patient", one of the 56 Sherlock Holmes short stories written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, is one of 12 stories in the cycle collected as The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes. The story was originally published in The Strand Magazine in the United Kingdom and Harper's Weekly in the United States in August 1893. Doyle ranked "The Adventure of the Resident Patient" eighteenth in a list of his nineteen favourite Sherlock Holmes stories. Synopsis Holmes and Watson are consulted by Dr. Percy Trevelyan, a young general practitioner whose specialty is neurological disorders. Two years prior, having been a brilliant student but lacking the money to set up in practice, Trevelyan agreed to a strange business proposition put forward by a Mr. Blessington. Blessington bought a house in Brook Street, furnished it, paid servants, and purchased everything Dr. Trevelyan could need; all Trevelyan had to do was set up a consulting room, turn over 75% of his earnings to Blessington, and allow Blessington to live in the house as a resident patient due to his heart trouble. The investment has made Blessington rich, and Trevelyan has become a well-known, respected doctor. However, some months ago, Blessington panicked after claiming to have read a newspaper article about a nearby burglary; he insisted upon stronger locks and other stringent security measures, and also refused to leave the house for several weeks, only recently resuming his habit of taking his evening walk. Secondly, the evening before Trevelyan's visit to Holmes, an elderly Russian nobleman and his son consulted the doctor, due to the father's complaint of catalepsy. The son remained in the waiting room while the father spoke to the doctor - however, the old gentleman suffered a cataleptic attack while in the consulting room. Trevelyan spent several minutes looking for some amyl nitrite, but both father and son were gone when he returned with it. They visited again the next evening, apologizing for mistakenly believing the consultation was over the day before. Trevelyan again consulted the father while the son waited outside. After the pair left, Blessington returned from his walk, found footprints in his room, and entered into a state of panic again, insisting Trevelyan go and fetch Holmes to his aid. Holmes and Watson return to Brook Street with the doctor, but Blessington refuses to admit to Holmes why he is obviously afraid for his life, or