The Mysterious World of Sherlock Holmes

by Bruce Wexler

  It is to this house that the volume of correspondence that is still addressed to the great detective is delivered. A full-time member of staff at the museum answers between forty and a hundred letters a week, most of which are requests for the detective’s help. Sherlock also receives wedding invitations, birthday cards, and is invited to speaking engagements… Every year, several Christmas cards also arrive for Holmes, including one signed “John Watson.”

  The official plaque commemorating Sherlock Holmes’s occupancy of 221b Baker Street.

  THE SHERLOCK HOLMES MUSEUM

  The Holmes’s sitting room fireplace at the Sherlock Holmes Museum, and Paget’s famous illustration of the same. They share the same restful and cozy ambience. Holmes’s and Watson’s hats rest on the table, together with the detective’s pipe and magnifying glass. Holmes’s Persian tobacco slipper can be seen on the mantle.

  The sitting room writing desk. The doorway leads to Holmes’s bedroom.

  Mrs. Hudson has laid Holmes’s and Watson’s dining table with sparkling crystal and silver.

  The dressing table and storage cabinet in Holmes’s bedroom.

  His deerstalker hat is on display, together with his actor’s greasepaint, which he used to disguise himself. On the wall are pictures of the criminals he brought to justice.

  Top: The patriotic Holmes commemorated the Queen’s initials, “V. R.,” by firing a target pistol into the sitting room wall.

  Bottom: Holmes has left a book of violin music on his bedside table.

  Holmes’s Spartan bedroom is pretty much as we would expect. Everything is clean and simple. His case of toiletries rests on the coverlet, and his suitcase is stowed underneath the bed. Everything seems ready for Holmes’s departure to pursue a case.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  Medical and Forensic Science in the Sherlock Holmes Stories

  Medical and Forensic science both play an important role in the development of Holmes’s character as a supremely rational, modern-minded investigator. The study of science and a passion for information also played a great role in Conan Doyle’s intellectual life. Not only had he trained as a doctor himself, but he also retained a lively interest in the medical advances that were coming thick and fast in the nineteenth century. Conan Doyle had a great respect for the profession, which is very much reflected in his literary treatment of Holmes’s ‘‘Boswell,’’ the redoubtable Watson. A medical man through education and practice, he embodies all the best qualities of Victorian manhood: modest courage, steadfast loyalty, and discreet intelligence.

  The medical profession underwent root and branch reform in the later part of the nineteenth century, particularly in the decades immediately preceding those covered by the Sherlockian canon. Medical practice was substantially professionalized and great advances in therapeutic treatment resulted in a much higher regard for its practitioners.

  Fingerprints as a method of identifying criminals came into regular use during Holmes’s career, and he was fully aware of this technique.

  In 1846, surgical anesthesia had been introduced at Boston’s Massachusetts General Hospital and this revolutionized the range of treatments that were then possible. Before anesthesia, surgery had been horribly barbaric. Attendants had to physically restrain writhing patients, and the surgeon’s nerves often had to be braced with alcohol. All this meant that only very crude operations, such as amputations, were possible. But even though anesthesia facilitated far more delicate and wide-ranging surgical procedures, many patients continued to die from infection. Joseph Lister, Professor of Surgery at Edinburgh University (Conan Doyle’s alma mater), pioneered antiseptic techniques in the 1870s, which resulted in far fewer postoperative deaths.

  Before this scientific approach became prevalent, many doctors were little better than quacks, and their savage treatments (leaching, cold water dousing, cupping, blistering, and blood letting) led to them being regarded with fear and disdain. Many people preferred to rely on less aggressive home remedies that were no less effective. At this time, no formal qualifications were required to practice medicine, and physicians underwent an apprenticeship of approximately five years, rather than a formal education. Even the best of them were considered to be skilled tradesmen rather than professionals.

  Dr. Watson’s medical bag, complete with his initials, J.H.W. (John Hamish Watson) is fully equipped with the medical equipment of the period.

  Complete lack of regulation meant that there was a huge range of ability and probity in the medical profession. Many highly dubious practices (which were either pointless or downright destructive) were commonplace in the ‘‘trade.’’ Medical situations were often virtually hereditary; nepotism was rife. Also, apothecaries not only supplied drugs but prescribed and sold them. Many of their most common preparations were actually deadly rather than beneficial, and contained poisons such as arsenic and antimony. Only a very few medicines had any proven efficacy at all, and there was almost no medical research to test the validity of the drugs or treatments offered.

  Joseph Lister pioneered the life-saving use of antiseptic surgery.

  Dramatic change was afoot by the mid-eighteenth century. In Britain, the medical profession was completely reorganized into a three-tier structure of physicians, surgeons, and apothecaries. In 1858, Parliament passed the Medical Act to regulate unqualified practitioners, and the Medical Act Amendment of 1886 forbade unlicensed doctors to practice at all. The licensing system meant that medical training was upgraded to a university qualification. Several Universities responded by opening medical schools. This in turn led to a far greater number of students wishing to enter the medical profession, as it was now considered suitable for ‘‘gentlemen.’’

  Pharmacy was subjected to far tighter regulations as well. A list of approved drugs, the National Pharmacopoeia, was instigated in 1864 and it became illegal to prescribe any drugs that did not appear on this register.

  By 1848, Edinburgh University had gained a reputation both for giving the country’s most thorough medical training, and for its progressive attitudes. The University pioneered the entry of women into the medical profession and admitted its first female medic, Sophia Jex Blake, in 1869. Conan Doyle enrolled a few years later, in 1876, by which time Scottish and European universities graduated around thirty percent of British doctors.

  By the 1880s, Edinburgh’s direct competitor, the London University Medical School, was best known for its extremely demanding final examination. The school graduated thirty-two percent of all British physicians, including James Watson (class of 1878). Sherlock Holmes was a post-graduate student at London University, studying chemistry and anatomy. London was also famous for its high standards of nursing (Elizabeth Fry’s Nursing Sisters was founded in 1840), for the eminence of its surgeons (including the Royal Surgeon Sir James Paget), and for its high standards of antiseptic cleanliness. Oxford and Cambridge, on the other hand, prided themselves on the rather less practical atmosphere of ‘‘scientific culture’’ that they offered their students. It is thought that Sherlock Holmes studied his undergraduate degree in chemistry at either one, or both, of these venerable institutions.

  The extremely high standards set by London University at this time are particularly interesting to readers of the canon. Watson entered the University’s medical school in 1872 and graduated from it in 1878. London’s rigorous training, and the arduous nature of its medical examination, would have been well understood by Conan Doyle. This is a clear indicator that he considered Watson to be a highly intelligent and capable man, far from the buffoonish character often portrayed in screen adaptations of the novels. It seems to have been forgotten by some interpreters of the role that Watson is not only Holmes’s highly regarded friend but also his chronicler. He is only less intelligent than Holmes in the way that every ‘‘normal’’ person is inferior to a genius. In passing, these cartoonish ‘‘Watsons’’ are also often far too elderly and grizzled. Watson is only thirty-eight when he first meets Holmes in 1881, j
ust two years older than the great detective, and seven years older than Conan Doyle. Watson succeeds in having a successful ‘‘combined’’ career in writing and medicine, just as Conan Doyle may have hoped to balance.

  Holmes’s chemical bench at the Sherlock Holmes Museum and Sidney Paget’s rendering of Holmes at work in his illustration for The Adventure of the Naval Treaty.

  A Victorian surgeon’s chest, which grotesquely resembles a carpenter’s tool kit. Surgery was generally restricted to amputation or trepanning, and many died from infection or shock before the introduction of antiseptics and anesthetic.

  The radical changes to the medical profession made it far more attractive to a higher caliber individual and to men from higher social classes. (At this time, most women in medicine continued to be either nurses or midwives.) Able and intelligent men (like Watson and Conan Doyle) were attracted to the profession by the high status that doctors now enjoyed, and the possibility of contributing to further scientific advances. The prospect of a good living must also have been appealing. At the top of his profession, a thriving London consultant could earn as much as £4,000 or £5,000 a year and enjoy a lavish lifestyle of country houses, carriages, and servants. Perhaps Conan Doyle was hoping for this kind of success when he moved to Upper Wimpole Street to practice ophthalmology. In choosing to specialize, Conan Doyle was reflecting the trend in European medical practice, where doctors tended to focus on specific conditions (including obstetrics and lunacy) or parts of the body. In 1891, he had traveled to both Vienna and Paris to study his chosen field. But perhaps his lack of success reflected the British patient’s preference for a more holistic approach from doctors in ‘‘general’’ practice. Watson certainly follows this course, and though his professional aspirations may be modest, he succeeds in supporting his family, just as his creator had done.

  Dr. Watson’s bedroom at the Sherlock Holmes Museum displays his collected medical journals and copies of -together with an early device for measuring blood pressure, and a fully stocked medical cabinet.

  Both Conan Doyle and Watson were also able to use their medical skills to travel abroad. At this time, the British Empire was expanding rapidly, and doctors were needed to support explorers, traders, and the army itself. Only with their professional assistance could the British continue to extend their far-flung influence.

  Having matriculated as a doctor in 1881, Conan Doyle gave up practicing just a decade later, in 1891. His great success as a writer had completely outshone his limited achievements in the medical profession, and perhaps the ‘‘suspicious’’ death of John Hawkins so early in his career, had eroded some of his professional self-confidence. But Conan Doyle maintained a strong interest in medical science throughout his life, particularly in forensic medicine. More importantly, his knowledge of the subject was to become intrinsic to his most successful work.

  Conan Doyle’s alma mater, Edinburgh University, was a pioneering force in the study of forensic medicine, and had had a ‘‘chair’’ in the subject since 1807. Conan Doyle would certainly have known the work of Sir Robert Christison, Edinburgh’s Professor of Forensic Medicine between 1822 and 1832. During his tenure, Christison published his Treatise on Poisons (1829), and this was to become the standard English-language work on toxicology. Conan Doyle’s university mentor, Dr. Joseph Bell, is also credited as a pioneer of forensic science and was famous for his use of acute observation to make medical diagnoses. Bell’s methodology and academic knowledge forms at least an element of Holmes’s character, in which a ‘‘profound’’ understanding of chemistry, anatomy, and toxicology are combined. Conan Doyle’s character announces himself as an expert in these fields in his very first meeting with Watson. He refers to the discovery of ‘‘hemoglobin . . . the most practical medico-legal discovery for years . . . it gives us an infallible test Dr. F.L. Miner. It contains many popular drugs of the nineteenth century, including chloral hydrate, chloroform, and potassium bromide.

  A portable medical kit, which belonged to for blood stains.’’ In fact, the German scientist Christian Friedrich Schonbein had developed a test to detect hemoglobin in 1865.

  Conan Doyle had also read Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” (1841) and saw how Vidocq’s real life ‘‘heirs’’ in the Parisian police force used both forensic science and the study of criminology. In fact, it was in Poe’s “The Mystery of Marie Roget” that the first fictional crime was to be solved by forensic evidence found on the victim’s body. This use of forensics in both fictional and real-life crime solving undoubtedly inspired Conan Doyle’s creation of Holmes. But through his character, Conan Doyle develops this theme much further. In doing so, he effectively captured the zeitgeist of Victorian England. The great advances in technology fascinated his contemporaries and the detective story proved a great medium to explore popular science. This led to such prominent figures as novelist Henry James (1843–1916), being rather dismissive of the genre, describing it as ‘‘not so much a work of art as a work of science.’’ But Conan Doyle’s brilliant blend of imagination and forensic fact is the double helix at the heart of Holmes’s success.

  The nineteenth century saw an explosion of major forensic breakthroughs, especially during its later decades, the period in which Holmes’s cases are set. Conan Doyle was fully aware of these discoveries and shared his knowledge with the great detective. Many of these forensic techniques remain in daily use by crime scene investigators.

  The fundamental precept of forensic science was laid down by criminologist Locard in L’enquelle Criminelle et les Methodes Scientifique (1904), in which he stated, ‘‘Every contact leaves a trace.’’ A whole raft of nineteenth- and early twentieth-century forensic work justified Locard’s assertion:

  In 1813, Mathiau Bonaventure Orfila was the first pathologist to use a microscope to examine blood and semen at crime scenes.

  In 1835, Henry Goddard (one of Scotland Yard’s original Bow Street Runners) was the first person to use a system of bullet comparison to investigate a crime.

  Police methods left a lot to be desired. Bodies were quickly removed from crime scenes to avoid public unrest. This was often before a proper forensic examination had been carried out. This kind of poor forensic practice was to become a seriously negative factor in the search for Jack the Ripper, who was never brought to justice.

  James Marsh developed his ‘‘Marsh Test’’ in 1836, to detect the presence of arsenic in human tissue.

  Alfred Swaine Taylor and Samuel Wilks’s classic work of the 1860s made it possible to determine time of death by measuring the fall in body temperature. They achieved this by placing the exposed bulb of a thermometer on the skin of the cadaver’s abdomen.

  A pestle and mortar would have been used to grind residues into a powder for forensic tests.

  Dr. Henry Faulks was the first person to realize the importance of fingerprints at a crime scene. Sir Francis Galton formalized this theory in his book Fingerprints (1892) and identified how individual prints could be recognized. ‘‘Galton’s Details’’ are still in use today. Galton’s work led the Head of Scotland Yard, Sir Edward Richard Henry, to replace anthropometrics with fingerprints as the force’s main source of biometric information.

  In 1893, Austrian magistrate Hans Gross published his Manual for Examining Magistrates. In essence, this was a handbook of forensic investigation for legal professionals. Although Gross never read the Holmes stories, his work is remarkably ‘‘Holmesian’’ in its sophistication.

  In the early 1900s, Georg Popp established the precepts of forensic geology. This was rather later than Holmes’s manifest interest in the subject. Watson tells us how, in the 1880s, Holmes could tell ‘‘at a glance different soils from each other.’’

  Tests proved that the stains on this rolling pin were blood, and it was used as an unconventional murder weapon. Schonbein had developed a test for hemoglobin in 1863.

  Before these advances in forensic science, the only evidence available to the
police was circumstantial. Inevitably, this had resulted in terrible miscarriages of justice. By using a combination of formidable observational powers and deep scientific knowledge, Holmes becomes the ‘‘seeker after hidden truth, the fathomer of mysteries, the hound of justice upon the trail of injustice and official apathy.’’ He is the paradigm of a ruthless investigator.

  Through his own experiments, and voracious reading, Holmes had become expert in a wide spectrum of physical evidence, including tracks, tobacco ashes, human remains, body fluids, gunpowder residue, and poisons (including belladonna, arsenic, and opium). He also has an up-to-date knowledge of forensics, which is featured in many canon stories. The ‘‘well-marked print of a thumb’’ on a whitewashed wall in ‘‘The Adventure of the Norwood Builder’’ and the trajectory and impact of a bullet in the ‘‘Reigate Squires’’ are just two examples. Holmes’s investigative career was built on his early training as a chemist and he exhibits a deep understanding of the subject throughout his career. He immediately recognizes the smell of both iodoform, the ‘‘pleasantly almondy odor’’ of prussic acid, and instantly distinguishes the black marks left by silver nitrate. Holmes is also an early exponent of handwriting analysis. In The Hound of the Baskervilles, the great detective describes it as ‘‘my special hobby.’’

  Always anxious to be well-informed and au fait with the latest scientific discoveries, Conan Doyle did not only use his understanding of forensic science in his fictional work but brought it to bear on real-life cases. Lady Conan Doyle described how he solved several mysteries that had completely baffled the police, and she told how ‘‘He was able, through his remarkable power of deduction and intelligence to locate missing people whose relatives had given them up as lost or murdered.’’ But once again, the creator was eclipsed by his creation. Holmes’s ability as a chemist was so highly regarded that the Royal Society of Chemistry awarded him a ‘‘posthumous’’ Honorary Fellowship.