"The Brown Hand" by Arthur Conan Doyle reviewed in a very different age

"The Brown Hand" is one of Conan Doyle's lesser known short stories but it has a number of interesting features especially when read over 100 years from the time of its production.  The story reflects Conan Doyle's interest in psychic matters and gives us an insight into Victorian attitudes to race and class whilst still being an interesting tale in its own right.

Briefly, the story revolves around how the narrator, Dr Hardacre, inherits the fortune of a former surgeon in the Indian army, Sir Dominick Holden, by solving the mystery of why a dead Indian man is haunting Sir Dominick with nocturnal visits.  Dr Hardacre is just one of many relatives invited to the former surgeon's home after Sir Dominick's return home to Wiltshire from service in India.  The conversation between the two turns to psychic matters and the surgeon invites Dr Hardacre to spend the night in his laboratory which the unhappy spirit visits every night to inspect the surgeon's collection of anatomical specimens.  Sir Dominick mentions that the collection of specimens is incomplete as a result of some being lost in a house fire which occured many years previously.  Dr Hardacre accepts the invitation and duly sees the apparition of a one handed man present in the laboratory during the night.  Sir Dominick confirms that the spirit is that of an Indian on whom he had carried out an amputation in the past.  He had promised to keep the hand in his collection until the man died and his spirit returned for it to enable its future progression. Unfortunately, the hand was one of the specimens lost in the house fire.  The spirit of the man had been haunting the surgeon as he searched for his lost hand.  Hardacre accepts the challenge of solving the problem and goes off in search of a similar specimen to replace the lost hand and hence propitiate the spirit.  Eventually, a satisfactory example is left in the laboratory overnight and the spirit accepts the replacement.  Sir Dominick is haunted no more and, in gratitude, duly leaves his fortune to Hardacre, much to the chagrin of other better placed relatives.

The story is based upon the belief among certain cultures that the body must be complete after death.  In this particular instance, it is assumed that "a reasonable compromise" can be effected if it is not possible to reunite the lost hand with its original owner.  It is curious that Conan Doyle assumes that any brown hand would be a reasonable compromise which would pacify the unhappy spirit.  No mention is made of any other similarity between the lost hand and its replacement other than its colour.   This could be, inadvertently, telling of attitudes in the age in which the story was written. 

The first attempt to provide the spirit with a replacement hand is unsuccessful.  This failure can be anticipated by most readers as no mention is made of whether a right or left hand is offered as a substitute on the first occasion.  The author's attempt to keep up the suspense by the use of this device is not altogether a success.

The narrator is clearly very impressed with the Wiltshire scenery as he makes his journey to the surgeons's house.  There are some evocative descriptions of the barrows and tumuli dotted around the Wiltshire countryside.  The author compares the magnificence of the prehistoric remains with the small cottages of the local inhabitants.  The occupiers of these dwellings are described as "peasants".  

There is a particularly interesting description of the pillars at the entrance to Sir Dominick's country estate.  It would appear that, even in the 19th century, these columns, so often adorned with heraldic devices, were looking weather worn and tired.  Many of these pillars can still be seen today in the countryside across England.  The world of the British Empire may have long since passed but these monuments remain as a reminder of a bygone age.