A brief history of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John H.
Watson, MD.
Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson first met in the chemical laboratory
of St. Batholomew's Hospital in London in March 1881 or March 1882. They
were introduced to each other by a gentleman referred to as young Stamford,
who was an aquaintance of both.
The two decided to share rooms at Baker Street 221b, where the landlady
was Mrs. Hudson, and so the most famous friendship in history took its
beginnings. Sherlock Holmes worked at Baker Street 221b as the world's
first and only consulting detective, and Dr. Watson was his assistant and
chronicler in several 100 cases of investigation where the official police
forces like Scotland Yard with the inspectors Lestrade and Gregson had
failed.
Of these cases a total of 60 was put into words by Dr. Watson. Their
first adventure was put into words by Dr. Watson under the title Study
in Scarlet, and published in Beeton's Christmas Annual for 1887 in late
November 1887. The second adventure, the Sign of Four was published in
Lippincott's Monthly Magazine in February 1890. Later on the adventures
were published in the Strand Magazine beginning with Scandal in Bohemia
in July 1891 were Sherlock Holmes met Irene Adler, of whom Dr. Watson wrote:
"To Sherlock Holmes she is always the woman" (SCAN).
Sherlock Holmes kept the lodgings at Baker Street 221b until the "Great
Hiatus", Sherlock Holmes' apparent death at the Reichenbach Falls near
Meiringen, Swizerland in May 1891, and reinhabited them after his return
in April 1894. During the Great Hiatus, it was thought even by Dr. Watson,
that Sherlock Holmes had died in the Reichenbach Falls during his struggle
with the Napoleon of crime, Professer Moriarty. But as it came out, Professor
Moriarty went down the falls alone, and Sherlock Holmes concealed his survival
because of then being in a better position to destroy the rest of the Moriarty
Gang, in which he finally succeeded in the adventure of the Empty House.
The Logings at Baker Street 221b had been kept by Sherlock Holmes' Brother
Mycroft, and so Sherlock Holmes returned to active practice there until
his retirement to Sussex at the end of October 1903. There he devoted his
energies mostly to beekeeping and books, but still solved several important
cases after this time, of which it is not shure which one is the last,
but it is elementary that the last reported case is His Last Bow, which
ends by capturing the German spymaster Von Bork upon the evening of 2 August
1914.
The Science of Deduction and the relationship between
Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson:
For this nobody can describe it better than Dr. Watson did himself
in the first chapter of:
THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES
CHAPTER 1: MR. SHERLOCK HOLMES
Mr. Sherlock Holmes, who was usually very late in the mornings, save
upon those not infrequent occasions when he was up all night, was seated
at the breakfast table. I stood upon the hearth-rug and picked up the stick
which our visitor had left behind him the night before. It was a fine,
thick piece of wood, bulbous-headed, of the sort which is known as a "Penang
lawyer." Just under the head was a broad silver band, nearly an inch across.
"To James Mortimer, M.R.C.S., from his friends of the C.C.H.," was engraved
upon it, with the date "1884." It was just such a stick as the old-fashioned
family practitioner used to carry- dignified, solid, and reassuring.
"Well, Watson, what do you make of it?"
Holmes was sitting with his back to me, and I had given him no sign
of my occupation.
"How did you know what I was doing? I believe you have eyes in the
back of your head."
"I have, at least, a well-polished, silver-plated coffee-pot in front
of me," said he. "But, tell me, Watson, what do you make of our visitor's
stick? Since we have been so unfortunate as to miss him and have no notion
of his errand, this accidental souvenir becomes of importance. Let me hear
you reconstruct the man by an examination of it."
"I think," said I, following as far as I could the methods of my companion,
"that Dr. Mortimer is a successful, elderly medical man, well-esteemed,
since those who know him give him this mark of their appreciation."
"Good!" said Holmes. "Excellent!"
"I think also that the probability is in favour of his being a country
practitioner who does a great deal of his visiting on foot."
"Why so?"
"Because this stick, though originally a very handsome one, has been
so knocked about that I can hardly imagine a town practitioner carrying
it. The thick iron ferrule is worn down, so it is evident that he has done
a great amount of walking with it."
"Perfectly sound!" said Holmes.
"And then again, there is the 'friends of the C.C.H.' I should guess
that to be the Something Hunt, the local hunt to whose members he has possibly
given some surgical assistance, and which has made him a small presentation
in return."
"Really, Watson, you excel yourself," said Holmes, pushing back his
chair and lighting a cigarette. "I am bound to say that in all the accounts
which you have been so good as to give of my own small achievements you
have habitually underrated your own abilities. It may be that you are not
yourself luminous, but you are a conductor of light. Some people without
possessing genius have a remarkable power of stimulating it. I confess,
my dear fellow, that I am very much in your debt."
He had never said as much before, and I must admit that his words gave
me keen pleasure, for I had often been piqued by his indifference to my
admiration and to the attempts which I had made to give publicity to his
methods. I was proud, too, to think that I had so far mastered his system
as to apply it in a way which earned his approval. He now took the stick
from my hands and examined it for a few minutes with his naked eyes. Then
with an expression of interest he laid down his cigarette, and, carrying
the cane to the window, he looked over it again with a convex lens.
"Interesting, though elementary," said he as he returned to his favourite
corner of the settee. "There are certainly one or two indications upon
the stick. It gives us the basis for several deductions."
"Has anything escaped me?" I asked with some self-importance. "I trust
that there is nothing of consequence which I have overlooked?"
"I am afraid, my dear Watson, that most of your conclusions were erroneous.
When I said you stimulated me I meant, to be frank, that in noting your
fallacies I was occasionally guided towards the truth. Not that you are
entirely wrong in this instance. The man is certainly a country practitioner.
And he walks a good deal."
"Then I was right."
"To that extent."
"But that was all."
"No, no, my dear Watson, not all- by no means all. I would suggest,
for example, that a presentation to a doctor is more likely to come from
a hospital than from a hunt, and that when the initials 'C.C.' are placed
before that hospital the words 'Charing Cross' very naturally suggest themselves."
"You may be right."
"The probability lies in that direction. And if we take this as a working
hypothesis we have a fresh basis from which to start our construction of
this unknown visitor." "Well, then, supposing that 'C.C.H.' does stand
for 'Charing Cross Hospital,' what further inferences may we draw?"
"Do none suggest themselves? You know my methods. Apply them!"
"I can only think of the obvious conclusion that the man has practised
in town before going to the country."
"I think that we might venture a little farther than this. Look at
it in this light. On what occasion would it be most probable that such
a presentation would be made? When would his friends unite to give him
a pledge of their good will? Obviously at the moment when Dr. Mortimer
withdrew from the service of the hospital in order to start in practice
for himself. We know there has been a presentation. We believe there has
been a change from a town hospital to a country practice. Is it, then,
stretching our inference too far to say that the presentation was on the
occasion of the change?"
"It certainly seems probable."
"Now, you will observe that he could not have been on the staff of
the hospital, since only a man well-established in a London practice could
hold such a position, and such a one would not drift into the country.
What was he, then? If he was in the hospital and yet not on the staff he
could only have been a house-surgeon or a house-physician- little more
than a senior student. And he left five years ago- the date is on the stick.
So your grave, middle-aged family practitioner vanishes into thin air,
my dear Watson, and there emerges a young fellow under thirty, amiable,
unambitious, absent-minded, and the possessor of a favourite dog, which
I should describe roughly as being larger than a terrier and smaller than
a mastiff."
I laughed incredulously as Sherlock Holmes leaned back in his settee
and blew little wavering rings of smoke up to the ceiling.
"As to the latter part, I have no means of checking you," said I, "but
at least it is not difficult to find out a few particulars about the man's
age and professional career." From my small medical shelf I took down the
Medical Directory and turned up the name. There were several Mortimers,
but only one who could be our visitor. I read his record aloud. -
"Mortimer, James, M.R.C.S., 1882, Grimpen, Dartmoor, Devon. House surgeon,
from 1882 to 1884, at Charing Cross Hospital. Winner of the Jackson prize
for Comparative Pathology, with essay entitled 'Is Disease a Reversion?'
Corresponding member of the Swedish Pathological Society. Author of 'Some
Freaks of Atavism' (Lancet, 1882). 'Do We Progress?' (Journal of Psychology,
March, 1883). Medical Officer for the parishes of Grimpen, Thorsley, and
High Barrow." -
"No mention of that local hunt, Watson," said Holmes with a mischievous
smile, "but a country doctor, as you very astutely observed. I think that
I am fairly justified in my inferences. As to the adjectives, I said, if
I remember right, amiable, unambitious, and absent-minded. It is my experience
that it is only an amiable man in this world who receives testimonials,
only an unambitious one who abandons a London career for the country, and
only an absent-minded one who leaves his stick and not his visiting-card
after waiting an hour in your room."
"And the dog?"
"Has been in the habit of carrying this stick behind his master. Being
a heavy stick the dog has held it tightly by the middle, and the marks
of his teeth are very plainly visible. The dog's jaw, as shown in the space
between these marks, is too broad in my opinion for a terrier and not broad
enough for a mastiff. It may have been- yes, by Jove, it is a curly-haired
spaniel."
He had risen and paced the room as he spoke. Now he halted in the recess
of the window. There was such a ring of conviction in his voice that I
glanced up in surprise.
"My dear fellow, how can you possibly be so sure of that?"
"For the very simple reason that I see the dog himself on our very
door-step, and there is the ring of its owner. Don't move, I beg you, Watson.
He is a professional brother of yours, and your presence may be of assistance
to me. Now is the dramatic moment of fate, Watson, when you hear a step
upon the stair which is walking into your life, and you know not whether
for good or ill. What does Dr. James Mortimer, the man of science, ask
of Sherlock Holmes, the specialist in crime? Come in!"
The appearance of our visitor was a surprise to me, since I had expected
a typical country practitioner. He was a very tall, thin man, with a long
nose like a beak, which jutted out between two keen, gray eyes, set closely
together and sparkling brightly from behind a pair of gold-rimmed glasses.
He was clad in a professional but rather slovenly fashion, for his frock-coat
was dingy and his trousers frayed. Though young, his long back was already
bowed, and he walked with a forward thrust of his head and a general air
of peering benevolence. As he entered his eyes fell upon the stick in Holmes's
hand, and he ran towards it with an exclamation of joy. "I am so very glad,"
said he. "I was not sure whether I had left it here or in the Shipping
Office. I would not lose that stick for the world."
"A presentation, I see," said Holmes.
"Yes, sir."
"From Charing Cross Hospital?"
"From one or two friends there on the occasion of my marriage."
"Dear, dear, that's bad!" said Holmes, shaking his head.
Dr. Mortimer blinked through his glasses in mild astonishment.
"Why was it bad?"
"Only that you have disarranged our little deductions. Your marriage,
you say?"
"Yes, sir. I married, and so left the hospital, and with it all hopes
of a consulting practice. It was necessary to make a home of my own."
"Come, come, we are not so far wrong, after all," said Holmes. "And
now, Dr. James Mortimer-"
"Mister, sir, Mister- a humble M.R.C.S."
"And a man of precise mind, evidently."
"A dabbler in science, Mr. Holmes, a picker up of shells on the shores
of the great unknown ocean. I presume that it is Mr. Sherlock Holmes whom
I am addressing and not-"
"No, this is my friend Dr. Watson."
"Glad to meet you, sir. I have heard your name mentioned in connection
with that of your friend. You interest me very much, Mr. Holmes. I had
hardly expected so dolichocephalic a skull or such well-marked supra-orbital
development. Would you have any objection to my running my finger along
your parietal fissure? A cast of your skull, sir, until the original is
available, would be an ornament to any anthropological museum. It is not
my intention to be fulsome, but I confess that I covet your skull."
Sherlock Holmes waved our strange visitor into a chair. "You are an
enthusiast in your line of thought, I perceive, sir, as I am in mine,"
said he. "I observe from your forefinger that you make your own cigarettes.
Have no hesitation in lighting one."
The man drew out paper and tobacco and twirled the one up in the other
with surprising dexterity. He had long, quivering fingers as agile and
restless as the antennae of an insect.
Holmes was silent, but his little darting glances showed me the interest
which he took in our curious companion.
For continuation see any copy of the Hound of the Baskervilles.
Sherlock Holmes' famous trademarks:
Deerstalker, Inverness Cape, Calabash Pipe, Magnifying Glas.
History of Sherlockiana:
Sherlock Holmes became famous with the first publications of his adventures
in the Strand Magazine in 1891. At that time such magazines were a very
important media, and the people which met talked about the stories which
they read there just like one would talk about tv-shows today. Therefore
Sherlock Holmes became very famous in England and trough the whole world
long before the change of the century. Soon enough Sherlock Holmes clubs
rose everywhere troughout the world, of wich the most famous are the Sherlock
Holmes Society of London and the Baker Street Irregulars of New York. The
people who devoted their leasure to studying the world of the great master
detective called themselves "Sherlockians" or "Scholars", and the study
of the world of Sherlock Holmes was soon called "Sherlockiana":.
The main basis for Sherlockiana is of corse the four novels and fifty-six
short stories written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. This texts are called
the "Scarced Writings" or the "Canon" by all scholars. Then there are some
additional texts by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle which add to the canon and are
called the "Apocrypha". Furthermore the phrase „he is a real Sherlock“
became a synonyme for any clever person at least by the early 1930‘ies.
The Sherlockiana reached ist summit in 1967 when the most honorable
Sherlockian William S. Baring-Gould published the "Annotated Sherlock Holmes".
This book was originally published in two volumes and a total of 1516 pages
at the size of 8.5in x 11in and contains the complete canon with several
hundred annotations cronicling almost everything that was ever said about
Sherlockiana and answering almost all questions that are caused by the
inconsistencies of the canon. Ten years later, in 1977, Sherlockian Jack
Tracy published the Encyclopaedia Sherlockiana. This book I like very much,
because is is somewhat a little more handy than the Annotated Sherlock
Holmes, and it gives an explanations of almost any long forgotten
Victorian words and almost all important persons and locations acting in
the Canon to non-expert readers in a very compact form, listed alphabetical
like a dictionary. Sherlockiana had finally come into another age, as the
people from the generations who had experienced the Victorian aera personally
became scarce.
Let me close this very brief historia Sherlockiana with a quotation
of the master himself, Sherlock Holmes when he says in "The Singular Experience
of Mr. John Scott Eccles" (WIST):
"Meanwhile we can thank our lucky fate which has rescued us for a few
short hours from the insufferable fatigues of idleness."
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