There was a crisis some years ago when Dr Kobayashi told us at a meeting that there was a proposal to expand the park where the statue stands, and the town council asked him to remove it. Of course Dr Kobayashi protested that proposal and we discussed the problem at the meeting. I do not know what the result was, but the statue still stands there, and the park has not been expanded. I suspect that the recession of the Japanese economy at that time saved our statue.
However, there is some good news about the Japanese statue. In the first week of every May several dozen members of the Japan Sherlock Holmes Club gather at the statue, to hold a meeting and to clean up the monument itself. After the cleaning up they hold a picnic at the foot of the statue. This is possible because it is in the countryside; it might be possible at Meiringen too, but not in Baker Street!
In the summer holidays there is a convention called the ‘Karuizawa Seminar.’ It is a two day event held at a hotel in Karuizawa and about twenty Sherlockians attend. The statue is not the main focus of the seminar, but those attending always visit it, either between presentations or after the seminar closes.
In Japan we visit our ancestors’ graves twice a year, and I am reminded of these events as I write this article. These two Buddhist events are called ‘Obon,’ in spring, and ‘Ohigan,’ in the summer, and the souls of our ancestors come back to earth from the heavens to stay with us for some days. These events remind us that we do not exist without our ancestors, and we give thanks to them. Noe of the Japanese Sherlockians point out that these two events resemble visits to the statue, and I do not claim that Holmes is in the heavens; but I think the subconscious minds of Japanese visitors to the statue understand the similarities. In that sense the Japanese statue is not merely a monument, but a symbol of the affection that Japanese Sherlockians have for the Master.
(The Ritual, No.24, 1999, The Northern Musgraves)
“Rogues Gallery”
I, Hirayama Yuichi was born in 1963, in Tokyo Japan. My family name is “HIRAYAMA,” and my personal name is “YUICHI.” This is the Japanese traditional style of writing names, and my western friends call me “YUICHI.” It is a joy for me to communicate and meet with foreign Sherlockians. I am a member of Sherlockian societies of many countries, and was investitured as a member of the Baker Street Irregulars in 1993.
It was twelve years old when I read Profile by Gaslight edited by Edgar W. Smith in Japanese and learned what Sherlockiana is. I was fascinated with it, and decided to be a Sherlockian. In high school, I founded The Men with the Twisted Konjo, and published private magazines in Japanese. This society was closed once, and in 1991 re-established for publishing an international Sherlockian magazine, The Shoso-in Bulletin. This magazine is still published, and includes articles by many members of the Northern Musgraves. It also includes articles from all over the world: Britain, France, Germany, Switzerland, Sweden, Spain, Italy, Russia, Lichtenstein, Belgium, Japan, India, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Australia, America, Canada and Brazil. I have no chance to publish articles from Africa or the Islamic world. If you know any Sherlockians in these areas, please introduce them to me.
Mr. John Hall and I wrote Some Knowledge of Baritsu- an investigation of the Japanese system of wrestling used by Sherlock Holmes published by The Northern Musgraves, as well as some articles in The Baker Street Journal and other magazines. But I have never published a book in Japanese before. There are six members of the Baker Street Irregulars in Japan, including the late Dr Naganuma Kohki, and I am the only member who has not published any Japanese books. Now I plan to publish a pamphlet of a Doyle work, “Jelland’s Voyage,” the only story situated in Japan, with annotations in English.
I am a general practice dentist. My wife Hiroko is also a Sherlockian. Some members might remember us attending a convention held in York, for our honeymoon. It was such an enjoyable Sherlockian gathering, and it was the first time we met our good friend, Mr. John Hall. Our daughter Michiko, six years old, is a fan of quizzes and puzzles. Our son Sho-ichiro, four years old, named after Mr. John Bennett Shaw, is an earnest fan of “Mr. Bean.” I do not know if they will be Sherlockians or not. Anyway, they cannot read The Ritual yet.
(The Ritual, No.26, Autumn 2000)
Dentures are the Best Disguise: Dental Aspects of Sherlock Holmes
Charles Goodman’s fine article “The Dental Holmes” is the ideal for every Sherlockian dentist. It consists of a letter from Dr. Charles S. Wilson, who treated Sherlock Holmes for years, answering questions from Dr. Goodman. In this article, he mentions Holmes’ “so-called “eye” tooth, which had been knocked out by a chap named Matthews in Charing Cross Station,” and notes “we in the dental profession know that under normal conditions his canine tooth could never have been easily ‘knocked out.’ Even the dental surgeon equipped with specially devised forceps must exert unusual leverage and force to remove that type of tooth. I am advised by one of my colleagues, who is also an official examiner of the Royal Boxing Commission, that in all his wide experience he never saw a normal canine knocked out in a boxing match. Therefore I am sure that your deduction that Holmes had pyorrhea is quite correct.”
“Pyorrhea” is now called “Periodontitis,” which is an inflammation and infection of the ligaments and alveolar bone which support teeth. Swelling and abscess are shown in gingival. Loss of bone causes looseness of the teeth, and in the end, the teeth are lost.
As Dr. Goodman pointed out, a canine is one of the most rigid teeth in the human mouth. A canine has the longest root of all the human teeth. Dentists often find older people’s mouths with no teeth but canines. Kurokawa et al. wrote in their article that “According to the residual teeth positions, the left lower canine showed the highest value (37.9%).” Other canines also have the highest value of the upper or lower half jaw. This result means the canine lasts the longest time in the human mouth.
If one of the strongest teeth, a canine, was lost, other weaker teeth would have been lost earlier. Dr. Goodman wrote, “Holmes insisted that I avoid any display of metal. He said, ‘Make me a bridge that even the keen eye of a Moriarty will fail to detect.’” For making a bridge, both the adjacent teeth should have been rigid, but it seems they were not. It is a rare case in which only a canine is lost, and the other teeth are in good condition. I suspect most of the other teeth were lost when his canine was knocked out. If the anterior teeth or premolar teeth remained, they would have also been knocked out when his canine was. In addition, if his canine suffered from severe periodontitis, the anterior teeth or premolar teeth should have been in much worse condition, and would have been lost. It is well presumed that Sherlock Holmes had only four canines or less in his mouth, when one of them was knocked out by Matthews.
In the Victorian era, “Pyorrhoea Alveolaris” or Periodontitis was a common oral disease, but its cause was not well known. Sewill wrote in Dental Surgery: Including Special Anatomy and Pathology that “Pyorrhoea alveolaris deserves to be styled the opprobrium of dental surgery. Of its etiology virtually nothing is known, knowledge of its pathology is almost equally lacking, whilst prognosis is always unfavorable, treatment being rarely able to do more than mitigate the severity of symptoms and slightly check the course of the malady. In the majority of cases in which pyorrhoea establishes itself, it slowly progresses in spite of treatment, affecting tooth after tooth until the whole dentition is destroyed.” (p.427)
Morton Smale considered in Diseases and Injuries of the Teeth, that “Taking all points into consideration, pyorrhoea alveolaris seems (1) to be present in many persons suffering from general disorders or diathesis; (2) to be excited in many instances by local irritants, such as the presence of tartar, debris of food, mechanical injury from abnormal articulation, such as occurs in many outstanding upper front teeth.” (p.275). L. R. Meredyth said in The Teeth and How to Save Them, “The most of these combine to form one great cause, which does the mischief in nineteen cases out of twenty, and that is
, lack of cleanliness and care about the mouth.” (p.164).
They could not find the bacteria that causes periodontitis, but understood its symptoms and treatments well. Sewill said, “The treatment of pyorrhoea must be first directed to thorough removal of tartar. General antisepsis of the mouth must be assiduously practiced by the patient. A soft toothbrush and a suitable dentifrice and antiseptic lotions must be used. The spaces between the teeth, which become widened as the alveoli waste, should be frequently cleared of foreign particles with a thin quill tooth-pick. In using a lotion the mouth should be partly filled and the fluid forced to and fro between the teeth by the movement of the lips. More direct applications must be made to the necks of the teeth and within the gum pockets around. An aqueous solution of perchloride of mercury, 1 in 3,000, is one of the most efficacious agents, but others may be, of course, employed.” (p.431).
These treatments are close to contemporary initial treatments, with the exception of mercury. However, “Teeth which have become so loose as to be constant sources of irritation should be extracted.” (p.432) is a different case. Nowadays, most dentists take great pains not to extract patients’ teeth, but in those days, or 30 years ago, extraction was much oftener done than in our times.
“Hospital Reports” from The British Journal of Dental Association, Vol. 31, I (1888) reports the number of patients and their treatments. In February 1888, London Dental Hospital treated 4773 cases, and 2350 cases were extractions, 1692 were gold and other fillings, 132 were advice, 169 were irregularities of the teeth, and 430 were miscellaneous and dressings. 49.2% were extractions. In this same hospital in March 1888, 48.9% were extractions. At The National Dental Hospital, in March 1888, 47.7% of all the cases were extractions. At the Victoria Dental Hospital of Manchester, in December 1881, 63.7% of all the cases were extractions. It is safe to say one in two dental treatments was an extraction, and extraction was very common treatment in Victorian dentistry.
Now we know Sherlock Holmes would have suffered from severe periodontitis. But why did Holmes suffer from periodontitis? Was he in one of the high-risk groups? There were no scenes in which Holmes brushed his teeth, but this is not definitive evidence, as Watson did not record all of Holmes’ doings.
One of Holmes’ bad habits was smoking. It is well-known fact that smoking damages the throat and mouth membranes. It is also a cause of cancers of the respiratory organs and mouth. Does smoking cause periodontitis, too? Aubrey Sheiham reports “1. Persons who smoked tobacco had more debris and calculus than nonsmokers. 2. Smokers had more severe periodontal disease than nonsmokers. There was a gradient of oral cleanliness and severity of periodontal disease from low in nonsmokers to high in smokers of 11 or more cigarettes per day. 3. Persons who stated that they smoked 1 to 10 cigarettes per day had less severe periodontal disease and cleaner mouths than those who smoked more.” Jan Bergstrom reports “The results, based on adults with good oral hygiene, suggest that loss of periodontal bone is related to smoking. The smoking related bone loss is not correlated with plaque infection.” Smoking not only causes periodontitis, but also causes loss of bone. Hanioka & Shizukuishi report that peculiarities of smokers’ periodontitis are large amounts of alveolar bone loss and detachment, many deep periodontal pockets, lots of tartar, and while their inflammation level is the same or less than non-smokers, the amount of plaque is the same. They suggest that smoking inhibits immunity and restoration of tissue demolished by periodontitis.
The other bad habit of Holmes was cocaine. Rosenbaum writes “Hygiene in general and oral hygiene specifically, are frequently neglected by drug addicts. It is difficult to know whether this is because they have never been taught appropriate preventive measures or whether they are unwilling to take the time necessary to do an adequate job. Additionally, because the patient is taking drugs which affect normal thought processes, the pain from untreated dental problems may be masked by the drug being abused. This combination of factors results in a patient with very little dental interest practicing unsatisfactory prevention. The end result is an abnormally high decayed and missing tooth rate.” Lee et al write, “Among cocaine users, there is a greater incidence of bruxing and, as a result, they have flatter cuspal incline of the posterior teeth. (Bruxing is one of causes of periodontitis; Hirayama) Cervial abrasion of the teeth has also been observed in higher frequency among cocaine users because of vigorous tooth brushing. Gingival lacerations at the corners of the mouth have also been reported among patients using cocaine. (These injuries of gingiva also worsen periodontitis; Hirayama) Anorexia and malnutrition are common findings in cocaine abusers, and oral manifestations secondary to malnutrition are glossodynia, angular cheilitis, and Candida infections. Patients abusing cocaine along with a second drug, such as alcohol, present with more serious dental problems. These patients have a higher rate of decayed or missing teeth, have advance periodontal disease, and marked xerostomia.”
It is safe to say that Sherlock Holmes’ bad habits, such as smoking and cocaine addiction, seriously damaged his gingiva. In addition, he was an earnest boxing player. Such physical force would do fatal damage to the teeth of periodontal patients. Most of his teeth would have been extracted in his twenties and thirties, and when he met Matthews at Charing Cross Station, which occurred before the Great Hiatus, he had only a few canines in his mouth.
***
There are several instances of circumstantial evidence that Sherlock Holmes had only a few teeth, or he wore dentures in his mouth.
It is well known that Holmes was a master of disguise. Even Watson, who lived together with him, was frequently deceived by his fine disguises. Now there are many special make-up methods, but it was the Victorian era in which Holmes lived. Just a false mustache or a hairpiece would not be so effective.
For example, in SIGN, Holmes disguised himself as an old sailor, and
He came across sullenly enough and seated himself with his face resting on his hands. Jones and I resumed our cigars and our talk. Suddenly, however, Holmes’s voice broke in upon us.
“I think that you might offer me a cigar too,” he said.
We both started in our chairs. There was Holmes sitting close to us with an air of quiet amusement.
“Holmes!” I exclaimed. “You are here! But where is the old man?”
“Here is the old man,” said he, holding out a heap of white hair.
“Here he is: wig, whiskers, eyebrows, and all. I thought my disguise was pretty good, but I hardly expected that it would stand that test.”
Holmes took off his disguise within some seconds, and showed his normal face to Watson. In FINA, he disguised himself as “a venerable Italian priest,” and
I turned in uncontrollable astonishment. The aged ecclesiastic had turned his face towards me. For an instant the wrinkles were smoothed away, the nose drew away from the chin, the lower lip ceased to protrude and the mouth to mumble, the dull eyes regained their fire, the drooping figure expanded. The next the whole frame collapsed again, and Holmes had gone as quickly as he had come.
Again in EMPT, Holmes was “strange old book collector,” who visited Watson.
I moved my head to look at the cabinet behind me. When I turned again, Sherlock Holmes was standing smiling at me across my study table. I rose to my feet, stared at him for some seconds in utter amazement, and then it appears that I must have fainted for the first and the last time in my life.
Why could Holmes change his disguise so fast and effectively? I believe the reason was his dentures. He had several partial or complete dentures in different designs for his mouth, and changed them when he was in disguise, or completely removed them from his mouth, when he disguised himself as an old man.
For every dentist, artificial teeth arrangement is one of the most important processes in denture making. Just a few millimeters difference makes the patient’s looks change. Some dentists ask patients to bring a photograph take
n in youth, when they had all their own teeth. At least, we make an effort to create the same look of anterior teeth arrangements with the patients’ old dentures, if there are no irreparable damages.
Some actors make use of the character given by dentures. A Japanese actor named Kamiyama Sojin, who played the villains in Hollywood films before the World War II, had no teeth. He used many dentures to change his face to be seen as evil. Japanese contemporary actor Mikuni Rentaro also has no teeth, and uses several sets of dentures like those of Kamiyama. Mikuni is called one of the best performers in Japan. In the Edo era, about 300 years ago, there was a master Ninja (a spy) named Yagyu Munefuyu. His grave was investigated by historians, and his dentures were found. He was not old enough to put on dentures when he died, and some historians believed he had all his teeth extracted, and used dentures for purposes of purposes.
Just a little rearrangement causes a complete change of face, and if Holmes took out his dentures, his face would be completely changed to that of a very old man. In the three cases above, Holmes was disguised as an old man, and that was his favorite disguise. He did not need to bring another set of dentures in his pocket to create this most effective disguise.
As we have discussed, it is obvious that Sherlock Holmes had only a few or no teeth in his mouth. However, he did not regard the loss of his teeth as handicap, but made good use of it in his detective activity as a disguise. It enabled him to make a quick change in disguise, and effectively deceived both his enemies and Dr. Watson.
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