Bevelin Peter - A few lessons from Sherlock Holmes

Title Page

A FEW LESSONS FROM SHERLOCK HOLMES

Peter Bevelin

Publisher Information

First edition published in 2013 by MX Publishing

335 Princess Park Manor, Royal Drive,

London, N11 3GX

www.mxpublishing.co.uk

Digital edition converted and distributed in 2013 by

Andrews UK Limited

www.andrewsuk.com

Copyright 2013

Post Scriptum AB

The right of Peter Bevelin to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1998.

All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without express prior written permission. No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted except with express prior written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright Act 1956 (as amended). Any person who commits any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damage. Every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of the information contained in this book. The opinions expressed herein are those of the author and not of MX Publishing.

Cover design by www.staunch.com

Introduction

Characters

Arthur Conan Doyle - Scottish physician and writer, most remembered for his stories about the detective Sherlock Holmes (1859 - 1930)

Joseph Bell - Scottish professor of clinical surgery (1837 - 1911) and Doyles inspiration for Sherlock Holmes

Sherlock Holmes - A London-based fictional detective

Dr. John Watson - A fictional character and Holmess assistant

C. Auguste Dupin - A fictional detective in stories by Edgar Allan Poe (1809 - 1849)

Dr. John Evelyn Thorndyke - A fictional detective and forensic scientist in stories by R. Austin Freeman (1862 - 1943)

Francis Bacon - English scientist and philosopher (1561 - 1626)

Claude Bernard - French physiologist (1813 - 1878)

Aulus Cornelius Celsus - Roman encyclopedist, known for his extant medical work (25 BC - ca 50)

Jean-Martin Charcot - French neurologist and professor of pathology (1825 - 1893)

Georges Cuvier - French naturalist and zoologist (1769 - 1832)

Charles Robert Darwin - English naturalist and writer (1809 - 1882)

Benjamin Jowett - British classical scholar (1817 - 1893)

James Alexander Lindsay - Irish professor of medicine (1856 - 1931)

Thomas McCrae - American professor of medicine and colleague of Sir William Osler (1870 - 1935)

Michel de Montaigne - French statesman and author (1533 - 1592)

William Osler - Canadian physician (1849 -1919)

Louis Pasteur - French chemist and microbiologist (1822 - 1895)

Charles Sanders Peirce - American scientist and philosopher (1839 - 1914)

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. - American physician and author (1809 - 1894)

Some background

Dr. Joseph Bell was the inspiration for Arthur Conan Doyle

The most notable of the characters whom I met was one Joseph Bell, surgeon at the Edinburgh Infirmary. Bell was a very remarkable man in body and mind...He was a very skillful surgeon, but his strong point was diagnosis, not only of disease, but of occupation and character...I had ample chance of studying his methods....It is no wonder that after the study of such character I used and amplified his methods when in later life I tried to build up a scientific detective who solved cases on his own merits and not through the folly of the criminal. (A.C. Doyle; Memories and Adventures)

Sherlock Holmes is the literary embodiment, if I may so express it, of my memory of a professor of medicine at Edinburgh University. (A.C. Doyle; Teller of Tales)

I thought of my old teacher Joe Bell, of his eagle face, of his curious ways of his eerie trick of spotting details. If he were a detective he would surely reduce this fascinating business to something nearer an exact science. I would try it if I could get this effect. (A.C. Doyle; Memories and Adventures)

In a letter to Dr. Bell, Doyle wrote

It is most certainly to you that I owe Sherlock Holmes, and though in the stories I have the advantage of being able to place [the detective] in all sorts of dramatic positions, I do not think that his analytical work is in the least an exaggeration of some effects which I have seen you produce in the out-patient ward. Round the

centre of deduction and inference and observation which I heard you inculate I have tried to build up a man who pushed the things as far as it would go - further occasionally - and I am so glad that the result has satisfied you, who are the critic with the most right to be severe. (Joseph Bell; Dr. Joe Bell)

Dr. Bell wrote on Doyle

I always regarded him as one of the best students I ever had. He was exceedingly interested always upon anything connected with diagnosis, and was never tired of trying to discover all those little details which one looks for. (Joseph Bell; Joseph Bell: An Appreciation by an Old Friend)

The reader may wonder why I involve quotes from medicine. Professor Bell may provide an answer

The experienced physician and the trained surgeon every day, in their examinations of the humblest patient, have to go through a similar process of reasoning, quick or slow according to the personal equations of each, almost automatic in the experienced man, laboured and often erratic in the tyro, yet requiring just the same simple requisites, senses to notice facts, and education and intelligence to apply them. (Dr. Joseph Bell; The Bookman)

Dr. Conan Doyles education as a student of medicine taught him how to observe, and his practice, both as a general practitioner and a specialist, has been a splendid training for a man such as he is, gifted with eyes, memory, and imagination. Eyes and ears which can see and hear, memory to record at once and to recall at pleasure the impressions of the senses, and an imagination capable of weaving a theory or piecing together a broken chain or unraveling a tangled clue, such are implements of his trade to a successful diagnostician. (Dr. Joseph Bell; The Bookman)

Medical Professor McCrae adds

We have such problems as part of our daily task and our work may be regarded as much like that of the criminal detective. He has a general knowledge of the members of the criminal class; we of disease in general. He knows that certain men have certain methods of work; we know the features of special diseases. It is stated that the police can classify habitual criminals more or less by their methods and, knowing the men in their city who work in a particular way, can narrow down the possibilities of a given crime to a few men. This may be described as the natural history of crime. So, too, we in medicine narrow down the possibilities. (Thomas McCrae; The Method of Zadig)

I have only one ambition and I cherish no greater hope than that of being useful. So let the journey begin

The general lines of reasoning advocated by Holmes have a real practical application to life. (A.C. Doyle; Memories and Adventures)

It has always been my habit to hide none of my methods, either from my friend Watson or from anyone who might take an intelligent interest in them. (Holmes; The Reigate Squire)

Some Lessons

What distinguishes Holmes from most mortals is that he knows where to look and what questions to ask. He pays attention to the important things and he knows where to find them.

Mathematics and science writer Martin Gardner on Sherlock Holmes

Like the scientist trying to solve a mystery of nature, Holmes first gathered all the evidence he could that was relevant to his problem. At times, he performed experiments to obtain fresh data. He then surveyed the total evidence in the light of his vast knowledge of crime, and/or sciences relevant to crime, to arrive at the most probable hypothesis. Deductions were made from the hypothesis; then the theory was further tested against new evidence, revised if need be, until finally the truth emerged with a probability close to certainty. (Martin Gardner)