“In the year 1878 I took my degree of Doctor of Medicine of the University of London, and proceeded to Netley to go through the course prescribed for surgeons in the Army.” — A Study in Scarlet, Ch. 1.

I was curious if it was possible to approximately determine his year of birth with this little piece of information (the most explicit one in any of the stories, unfortunately).

As it happens, I read that med school at the University of London was comparatively tough: for example, that the Universities of Edinburgh and Glasgow were much quicker to award an M.D., while the usual graduate degree in England was a Bachelor of Medicine, the M.D. being awarded more rarely; and that medical school in Scotland only took four years (with the students being sometimes as young as fourteen – http://www.jstor.org/stable/44444674), while “The University of London had demanded since 1837 a bachelor of arts degree or its equivalent before commencing four years of graded medical study in basic science, anatomy and physiology, and then clinical instruction (“the whole of Science to be taught before the Practical division”), followed by two years of practice in a hospital or dispensary.” (Thomas Neville Bonner, Becoming a Physician (1995), p. 207).

Can anyone elaborate on this, or provide further sources? How old would a student have been when attaining a bachelor of arts degree? etc. etc.

Thanks very much in advance.