with it all hopes of a consulting practice.

I left the hospital and also as a result left behind all hopes of a consulting practice.

um...I thought of it originally, but isn't it illogical?

After leaving the hospital, isn't it exactly Mortimer's intention to set up a private consulting practice? Then how come leaving the hospital would make him forgo the prospect of having a consulting practice?

It is not illogical. In Britain, a 'consultant' is a senior hospital doctor. To have a consulting practice in a hospital, a doctor must be working for that hospital. Read the previous paragraphs where the doctor's grade is discussed.

Interesting. I'm pretty sure that in the US, the doctor would have to have hospital privileges but not necessarily be employed by the hospital. In my town, the only hospital requires a doctor to live within a certain distance of the hospital.

Personally, I dread the thought of language usages being required to be logical. They are what they are.

I'm not sure what the problem is. In the 1880s, as now, British hospital doctors (that is, doctors employed by a hospital to work as members of its medical staff) progressed up the career ladder through different grades, a higher one being called 'Consultant'. This is the title of a senior hospital-based physician or surgeon who has completed all of his or her specialist training and been placed on the specialist register in their chosen speciality. Their role is entirely distinct to that of general practitioners, or GPs.

If a doctor nearing that grade left the staff to work in private practice, then he or she would have to give up hope of attaining Consultant grade, at least while in private practice, and if a number of years went by, probably for ever.

No problem. Just national differences.

I have thought about this some more. In 19th century Britain, there was no State-run national health service. Doctors either worked for hospitals, or for themselves in a "practice". Their initial training was at a university medical school and following that a period in a hospital. When a doctor was fully trained he could leave and set up in a "general practice", or stay in hospital work and after a number of years possibly become a senior doctor, a "consultant". After a period at this stage he could leave and start a "consulting practice", where his specialist knowledge and experience would enable him to attract richer patients and charge higher fees. By leaving hospital work before having the necessary experience and status, a doctor would be also leaving behind the chance of having a consulting practice.

Contrex: I have thought about this some more.

And we have all seen where that can lead.

"Now, you will observe that he could not have been on the staff of the hospital, since only a man well-established in a London practice could hold such a position, and such a one would not drift into the country. What was he, then? If he was in the hospital and yet not on the staff he could only have been a house-surgeon or a house-physician — little more than a senior student. And he left five years ago — the date is on the stick. So your grave, middle-aged family practitioner vanishes into thin air, my dear Watson, and there emerges a young fellow under thirty, amiable, unambitious, absent-minded, and the possessor of a favourite dog, which I should describe roughly as being larger than a terrier and smaller than a mastiff."
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If so, does STAFF mean senior doctors while here HOUSE SURGEON etc means low rank doctors?

Yes. The ordinary modern use of the word is to denote all the members of an organisation but an older meaning is 'senior member'

You're the best!