Sherlock Holmes and the Vampire Invasion

by Suzette Hollingsworth

  “It is a lamentable fact if, in the midst of our civilization, and at the close of the nineteenth century, the workhouse is all that can be offered to the industrious laborer at the end of a long and honorable life. I do not enter into the question now in detail. I do not say it is an easy one; I do not say that it will be solved in a moment; but I do say this, that until society is able to offer to the industrious laborer at the end of a long and blameless life something better than the workhouse, society will not have discharged its duties to its poorer members.” The Times (12 December 1891), p. 7., William Gladstone, Prime Minister

  Drinking blood, it’s not for everyone:

  I do not personally drink blood and am not a proponent of drinking blood, but was astonished to learn that there are people who do so.

  Is It Safe to Drink Blood? - Live Science

  https://www.livescience.com › Strange News

  “Jun 6, 2016 - You, however, are not a vampire bat. Because humans did not evolve such an iron-extracting mechanism, drinking blood can kill us. If you're thinking of sampling human blood, make sure there's a doctor handy — for you, not your victim.”

  “It was not always this way; across history, we can find cases where human blood was considered a bona-fide medical cure. At the end of the 15th Century, for instance, Pope Innocent VIII’s physician allegedly bled three young men to death and fed their blood (still warm) to his dying master, with the hope that it might pass on their youthful vitality.”

  BBC - Future - The people who drink human blood

  www.bbc.com/future/story/20151021-the-people-who-drink-human-blood

  “Oct 21, 2015 - In many cities around the world, thousands of average people – nurses, bar staff, secretaries – are drinking human blood on a regular basis.”

  Blood Transfusions:

  The first blood transfusion from animal to human was administered by Dr. Jean-Baptiste Denys, eminent physician to King Louis XIV of France, on June 15, 1667.[57] He transfused the blood of a sheep into a 15-year-old boy, who survived the transfusion.[58] Denys performed another transfusion into a labourer, who also survived. Both instances were likely due to the small amount of blood that was actually transfused into these people. This allowed them to withstand the allergic reaction.

  “In the early 19th century, British obstetrician Dr. James Blundell made efforts to treat hemorrhage by transfusion of human blood using a syringe. In 1818 following experiments with animals, he performed the first successful transfusion of human blood to treat postpartum hemorrhage. Blundell used the patient's husband as a donor, and extracted four ounces of blood from his arm to transfuse into his wife. During the years 1825 and 1830, Blundell performed 10 transfusions, five of which were beneficial, and published his results. He also invented a number of instruments for the transfusion of blood. He made a substantial amount of money from this endeavour, roughly $2 million ($50 million real dollars).

  In 1840, at St George's Hospital Medical School in London, Samuel Armstrong Lane, aided by Dr. Blundell, performed the first successful whole blood transfusion to treat haemophilia.

  However, early transfusions were risky and many resulted in the death of the patient. By the late 19th century, blood transfusion was regarded as a risky and dubious procedure, and was largely shunned by the medical establishment.

  Work to emulate James Blundell continued in Edinburgh. In 1845 the Edinburgh Journal described the successful transfusion of blood to a woman with severe uterine bleeding. Subsequent transfusions were successful with patients of Professor James Young Simpson after whom the Simpson Memorial Hospital in Edinburgh was named.

  The largest series of early successful transfusions took place at the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary between 1885 and 1892. Edinburgh later became the home of the first blood donation and blood transfusion services.

  It was not until 1901, when the Austrian Karl Landsteiner discovered three human blood groups (O, A, and B), that blood transfusion was put onto a scientific basis and became safer.”

  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blood_transfusion

  Footprints

  “Holmes’s best use of footprints occurs in The Boscombe Valley Mystery, the sixth story, which he solved almost entirely on footprint evidence. After examining the ground around the site of the murder, Holmes tells Inspector Lestrade, “The murderer is a tall man, left-handed, limps with the right leg, wears thick soled shooting boots, and a gray cloak, smokes Indian cigars, uses a cigar holder, and carries a blunt pen-knife in his pocket.” Despite Holmes’s clue, Lestrade fails to apprehend Mr. Turner. Readers, however, are not surprised by the amount of detail in Holmes’s description of the culprit. We have known since the second story, The Sign of the Four, that Holmes is an expert in footprints. There we learned that he had already penned a monograph entitled, “The Tracing of Footsteps with Some Remarks on the Uses of Plaster of Paris as a Preserver of Impresses”. Indeed, throughout the Holmesian Canon our hero must deal with footprints on a wide variety of surfaces: clay soil, mud, snow, carpet, ashes, and blood.”

  https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Boscombe_Valley_Mystery

  Science:

  Tyndall invented the thermopile in the late 1850’s.

  “It was actually Einstein who first came up with the idea of “stimulated emission”.

  First, Einstein proposed that an excited atom in isolation can return to a lower energy state by emitting photons, a process he dubbed spontaneous emission.”

  https://www.aps.org/publications/apsnews/200508/history.cfm

  Cost of living, Victorian times:

  http://www.victorianweb.org/economics/wages4.html

  The Metropolitan Police 1829–1900

  “Between 1829 and 1830, 17 local divisions each with its own police station were established, each lettered A to V, allocating each London borough with a designated letter. These divisions were: A (Westminster); B (Chelsea); C (Mayfair and Soho); D (Marylebone); E (Holborn); F (Kensington); G (Kings Cross); H (Stepney); K (West Ham); L (Lambeth); M (Southwark); N (Islington); P (Peckham); R (Greenwich); S (Hampstead); T (Hammersmith) and V (Wandsworth). In 1865 three more divisions were created, W (Clapham); X (Willesden) and Y (Tottenham); J Division (Bethnal Green) was added in 1886.”

  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Metropolitan_Police_Service

  Victorian money:

  http://www.victorianlondon.org/finance/money.htm

  £1 (also shown as 1l.) was 20 shillings.

  1 shilling (1s.), was 12 pence. Also often known as a 'bob', as in "I paid six bob for this",

  Thus there were 240 pence (20 x 12) to every pound.

  Other Victorian words to do with currency:-

  1 guinea was £1 1s. (or 21 shillings) - ie. a pound with an additional shilling.

  1 crown was five shillings. (and half-crown two and a half shillings, of course)

  A half-sovereign ten shillings.

  1 farthing was a ¼ penny.

  How much did people earn?

  A matchbook-maker made about 18 pennies/day

  https://outrunchange.com/2012/06/14/typical-wages-in-1860-through-1890/

  This appears to be 30 cents/hour (for a man), machinist, etc. (or $2-$4/day)

  In summary, skilled labor (men), 30 cents/hour; unskilled men, 10 cents/hour, unskilled women, 30 cents/day.

  The premise of the interesting PBS special “How Sherlock Changed the World” is that, in Victorian times, there was no forensic investigation of the crime scene, and that, these actually developed because of Arthur Conan Doyle’s creation. Prior to the introduction of Sherlock, according to the show, the only methods utilized were interviewing and torturing suspects.

  http://www.pbs.org/show/how-sherlock-changed-world/

  Women and Dentistry

  "People were amazed when they learned that a young girl had so far forgotten her womanhood as to want to study dentistry" (Lucy Beaman Hobbs, 1884)

  "The practice of the woman dentist of the near future will be confined
to dealing with patients of her own sex and children."- 1914

  Lilian Lindsay becoming the first woman to qualify as a dentist in the UK in 1895. Further female members were slow to follow as English dental schools were not accepting women applicants at this point. That would do it.

  https://bda.org/library/history/womenindentistry

  "The first woman to establish herself in a regular dental practice in the United States was Emeline Roberts Jones of Connecticut. In 1854, at age 17, she married a dentist, Daniel Albion Jones, and became "intensely interested" in his work. After watching her husband work, she began filling extracted teeth. She filled a two-quart jar with her work and then showed her husband what she had done. Reluctantly, in May 1855, he agreed to allow her to practice with him in his Danielsonville office. Finally, in 1859, he took her in as his partner. She enjoyed a reputation as "a skillful dentist"...she was the first woman to open her own office independently and offer her services to the public "as a competent dentist."

  (Hyson Jr, JM. Women dentists: the origins. CDA Journal 2002; 30 (6): 444-54)

  "People were amazed when they learned that a young girl had so far forgotten her womanhood as to want to study dentistry" (Lucy Beaman Hobbs, 1884)

  Women and Education

  Women could not be certified as doctors in Britain in this era. Women couldn’t even get a bachelor of science degree until 1880 from the University of London (you will agree that the study of science and math is necessary to medicine).

  There was one practicing female doctor in England, Elizabeth Garrett Anderson, from 1865 when she set up her own private practice because she was not allowed to take up a medical post in any hospital. The cholera epidemic in Britain made people more willing to receive assistance, even from a woman.

  Garrett was a licentiate of the Society of Apothecaries; as a condition of their charter, they could not legally exclude her. After Garrett obtained her license to practice medicine The Society of Apothecaries immediately amended its regulations to prevent other women obtaining a licence. In order to take the test to obtain the license, Garrett had to hire private tutors in anatomy and physiology. She had been allowed previously into the dissecting room and chemistry lectures—and the male students forced her out, presenting a memorial to the school against her attendance as a fellow student.

  America was way ahead; the first female doctor in America was Elizabeth Blackwell in 1849.

  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_Garrett_Anderson

  There is a wonderful account of Philippa Fawcett (4 April 1868 – 10 June 1948), daughter of the prominent Suffragist Millicent Fawcett, and niece of Elizabeth Garrett Anderson, achieving the highest marks in the Cambridge Mathematical Tripos exams (1890).

  "There was a great and prolonged cheering; many of the men turned towards Philippa, who was sitting in the Cambridge Senate gallery with Miss Clough, and waved their hats.... She was, of course, tremendously delighted."

  Fawcett received a much more positive response from her male counterparts than is described in other accounts of women competing with men, so I wonder what the difference was. I would be very interested to know. For men to raise their hats and cheer is a fairly strong response of support. I’m not a big fan of man-bashing anyway, as there were good and wonderful men through-out history and today, as well as some horrible women.

  Even though Philippa’s score was 13% higher than the second highest score, she was not named “Senior Wrangler”, the accolade going to the highest-scoring male student. Nor could she even claim to have a degree, only to have the passed the degree examinations. (Kenyon 74-75).

  Kenyon, Olga, ed. 800 Years of Women's Letters. Stroud: Sutton, 1994.

  “Coming amidst the women's suffrage movement, Fawcett's feat gathered worldwide media coverage, spurring much discussion about women's capacities and rights.”

  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philippa_Fawcett

  “In Cambridge the question of awarding degrees to women caused bitter controversy. The question arose (again) in 1897 and was overwhelmingly defeated, provoking near riots in Cambridge by university men opposing the move. Women did not become full members of the university in Oxford until 1919 and in Cambridge until 1948.

  The University of London is usually credited as the first institution to open its degrees to both sexes on an equal basis (except for medicine) in 1878, but the pattern of women’s admission is complex and much depends on definitions. In 1907 University College London (a segregated woman’s college which in 1878 offered degrees in the Sciences, Arts and Laws to women) ceased to have a separate existence and was incorporated into the University of London.”

  http://www.london.ac.uk/history.html

  Mathematics – too hard for women?

  “We ought to recognize that the average girl has a natural disability for Mathematics. One cause may be that she has less vital energy to spare ….” Herbert Spencer believed that female evolution, meaning intellectual evolution, had stopped at a stage before man’s in order to preserve vital organs for childbirth. If a woman undertook rigorous ‘brain work’ such as mathematics, energy could be diverted from her reproductive system, threatening fertility and general wellbeing.” – Herbert Spencer, 1912, 22 years after Phillipa Fawcett took top honors Cambridge Mathematical Tripos exams (1890).

  In line with Arthur Conan Doyle’s depiction of Sherlock Holmes and John Watson:

  January 6, 1854: Sherlock Holmes’ birthday. Mycroft 7 years older

  John H. Watson's birthday on July 7, 1852 1.5 years older than Holmes

  Mirabella’s birthday: Nov. 7, 1863

  Many of the characteristics depicted in this book were introduced by Arthur Conan Doyle, e.g., the description of John Watson’s campaign in Afghanistan and resultant insomnia, the description of Mycroft as a lazy but brilliant mid-level bureaucrat, the description of 221B Baker street, and the statement of Sherlock’s parents as being country squires. Although not explained by Arthur Conan Doyle, it is a fact that a country squire might live on the largest manor, and would very likely be the local Justice of the Peace. All the explanations surrounding this is consistent with the history of the day. The location of Sussex as the family home is my own invention, but is in line with Doyle saying that Sherlock retired to Sussex. Arthur Conan Doyle made very little mention of Sherlock’s family, parents, home, and no mention of siblings outside of Mycroft. These additions were in line with the framework established by Arthur Conan Doyle and were written with the idea of “making sense” within that framework. Mirabella Hudson is my own creation.

  It does seem very likely that Sherlock Holmes would need a female operative, doesn’t it? He cannot play every role. Some readers who are avid fans of Arthur Conan Doyle do not want a feminine presence in any books containing Sherlock Holmes as a character. There cannot be giggling or emotions, and the feeling must be somber and intellectual because, naturally, there were no women in Victorian times.

  I have attempted to write a book true to the original characters and the Victorian ambiance. I understand that some readers want to read a book which was written exactly as Doyle would write it, but those works are still all here. This is a pastiche. Nothing can diminish Doyle’s genius. That is why the Jane Austen and zombie books do not take away from or diminish Jane Austen: she was a literary master and nothing can detract from her talent and the enjoyment of her works.

  Author Bio

  Suzette Hollingsworth grew up in Wyoming and Texas, went to school in Tennessee (Sewanee), lived in Europe two summers, and now resides in beautiful Washington State with her cartoonist/author husband Clint, Barney D. Barncat, George Cloney (who looks just like Casanova Coffee Cat) and StingRay the miniature poodle. It is her dream to be a snowbird and to head south in the winter.

  Suzette's writing style combines wit with elegance and has been described as "Sherlock in Mr. Darcy mode" by a reader.

  She is also re-publishing her historical romance series (“Daughters of the Empire”), previously
published by Bookstrand: The Paradox, The Serenade, and The Conspiracy.

  Suzette’s goal in writing historical fiction is that you, the reader, will engage in a magical journey and time travel through her books. She is very excited about her current Sherlock Holmes series in which Mrs. Hudson’s niece is a potential love interest amidst these Victorian mysteries. Sherlock Holmes is a great, fun hero to write because he is liked from the get-go despite being pompous and insufferable (or perhaps because of it!), something which might result in an unsympathetic hero in another narrative. The series draws on the imagery surrounding the beloved Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson (Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law, in particular, though the author is a fan of all versions, including Jeremy Brett and Basil Rathbone), incorporates the witty banter into the relationship between Sherlock and Mirabella, and lends itself well to Steam punk, blending the “Age of Invention” with something old-fashioned, elegant, and slower-paced.