The model for Sherlock Holmes was a real Scottish doctor... How could he know someone's background upon first meeting?
//Summary - Level-B2//
Sherlock Holmes’s deductive genius was inspired by a real Scottish doctor, Joseph Bell, who taught Arthur Conan Doyle. Like Holmes, Bell could identify a person’s background from small details—a sailor’s walk, a soldier’s tattoos, or a worker’s hands. Holmes’s method involved observing tiny clues, asking the right questions, forming hypotheses, and testing them logically. His famous deduction that Watson was an army surgeon returning from Afghanistan came from such reasoning, not magic. Though Watson first doubted Holmes’s methods, Holmes showed that careful observation and logical analysis could reveal astonishing truths. Holmes called deduction “imagining Niagara Falls from one drop of water.”
1)
Holmes's deduction that Watson, whom he met for the first time, was ‘a military surgeon returning from Afghanistan’ appears superhuman. However, British non-fiction writer Daniel Smith states that Holmes actually had a real-life model, and that individual too could discern a person's background at a single glance.
2)
How did both Holmes and his real-life medical model arrive at their conclusions? We explore this from The Sherlock Holmes Method: How to Solve Any Problem.
3)
The logical reasoning process of the great detective:
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‘I do not make conjectures. It is a bad habit—it ruins one's logical powers.’
(From The Sign of the Four)
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4)
Holmes' astonishing talent is most fully displayed when he deduces from evidence that seems unimportant to us ordinary folk.
The conclusions drawn from these are utterly precise, making one wonder if Holmes might possess supernatural powers or psychic abilities.
So, what process does his logical reasoning follow?
5)
〇 Gathering Evidence
Through his keenly honed powers of observation, Holmes could gather astonishingly rich information even from seemingly useless details.
〇 Formulating the right questions
For matters he wished to understand, Holmes formulated clear questions in his mind. Did this person's attire offer clues to their origin or occupation? What did the absence of a barking dog signify? Why would a red-haired pawnbroker be needed to transcribe encyclopaedias for several hours a day?
6)
〇Formulating Hypotheses
A doctor arrived at Baker Street. He carried a cane covered in scratches, and his shoes bore mud of a colour seldom seen in London, yet otherwise he appeared well-presented.
Why was he dressed thus? Was he the sort to neglect his footwear? Were all London's shoe-shine boys on strike? Had he hurried here after finishing consultations in the country?
7)
〇Testing the Hypothesis
Given his otherwise bright appearance, it seems unlikely he simply neglects his shoes. I saw a shoe-shine boy earlier during my walk, so there is no strike. However, the doctor appears agitated, having rushed here to Baker Street.
〇Reaching a Conclusion
I shall ask the doctor why he came in such haste from his country practice.
8)
Reason for identifying Watson, a stranger, as ‘just back from Afghanistan’:
When Holmes first met Watson in A Study in Scarlet, he demonstrated his logical reasoning. Watson was seeking lodgings in London, and Holmes was looking for a flatmate. Their meeting was arranged by a mutual acquaintance, Mr Stanford.
9)
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‘Dr Watson. This is Mr Sherlock Holmes,’ Stanford introduced us.
‘Pleased to make your acquaintance,’ he said in a warm tone, clasping my hand with astonishing strength.
‘You were in Afghanistan, weren't you?’
‘How did you know that?’ I asked, startled.
‘But that's beside the point,’ he grinned. ‘What matters now is haemoglobin. You can appreciate the importance of my discovery, can't you?’
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10)
And so the story unfolds. The two men come to live together, and eventually Holmes explains how he arrived at his astonishing insight.
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I realised at once that you'd been in Afghanistan. By long habit, a train of thought raced through my mind at breakneck speed, concluding without conscious awareness of the intermediate steps. Though, of course, there were intermediate steps. Let me explain the sequence—this gentleman here looks like a doctor, yet he has a military air about him. That means he's an army surgeon. He's just returned from a temperate region.
The proof is his dark face. His wrists are pale, so it's not his natural skin tone. His gaunt face suggests hardship and illness. His left arm is injured. It's awkward, unnatural. Where in the temperate regions would a British military doctor endure such hardship and sustain an arm injury? Afghanistan, undoubtedly—it took less than a second to reach this conclusion. So, when I told you he'd been in Afghanistan, you were surprised.
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11)
The real-life doctor who inspired Holmes:
These brilliant deductions were inspired by a real person: the Scottish physician Joseph Bell.
Conan Doyle studied medicine under Bell at Edinburgh University in the 1870s, later writing to his mentor: "Sherlock Holmes was undoubtedly born thanks to you, sir. (omission) I believe Holmes' analytical work is entirely true to how you practised in the outpatient block, and is by no means exaggerated."
12)
Bell's remarkable ability lay in discerning a patient's background during examination, often without needing to ask questions. It is said he could recognise a sailor by their staggering gait, guess their destination from their tattoos, and determine their profession simply by observing their hands.
Indeed, Conan Doyle himself witnessed Bell's remarkable deductions firsthand. Faced with a patient, he correctly stated that he was a non-commissioned officer recently discharged from a Highland regiment stationed in Barbados in the Caribbean.
13)
Holmes once said that deduction is ‘imagining Niagara Falls from a single drop of water’:
In A Study in Scarlet, Watson awoke one morning to find a magazine on the table at 221B Baker Street. A title had been marked in pencil, so he idly began reading the article.
14)
The article, bearing the somewhat grandiose title “The Book of Life”, argued that an observant person could glean much information by meticulously and systematically examining everything before them. It was a sharp observation, yet undeniably absurd. The logic was intricate and persuasive, but the conclusion seemed forced and exaggerated.
15)
According to the author, one could discern the deepest thoughts of another through a fleeting expression, a muscle twitch, or a glance. Moreover, deception was impossible against one who had mastered observation and analysis.
This conclusion was said to be as flawless as Euclid's propositions. Beginners would be utterly flabbergasted, and until they understood the process leading to this conclusion, it was only natural to regard the author as some sort of black magician.
16)
At first, Watson dismissed the content as ‘utter nonsense,’ declaring, ‘I've never read such rubbish.’ Yet shortly afterwards, Holmes revealed he had written it himself. For researchers of the great detective, this constitutes an invaluable moment where he elucidates his own deductive process.
17)
‘From a single drop of water,’ the author states. "Logically speaking, one might infer the existence of the Atlantic Ocean or Niagara Falls without any prior knowledge of them. Similarly, all living things form a great chain; observing one part inevitably reveals the essence of the whole.
Like all arts, the science of deduction and analysis can only be mastered through long and patient study. For any individual, life is too short to reach the highest possible level.
18)
Therefore, before tackling this supremely difficult mental and intellectual field, it would be better to engage with more elementary problems. First, one should learn to discern a person's background and occupation at a glance when faced with them.
19)
Such training may seem childish, but it sharpens one's powers of observation and teaches where to look and what to seek. The nails, the sleeves of the coat, the shoes, the knees of the trousers, the calluses on the index finger and thumb, the expression, the shirt cuffs... Each of these can clearly indicate a profession. Considering them all together, a capable person should almost certainly arrive at the answer.
20)
‘Yes, I excel in observation and deduction,’ Holmes tells Watson.
‘The theory you've written down may seem utterly preposterous to you, but in practice it's exceedingly useful—useful enough to put bread and cheese on the table.’
The model for Sherlock Holmes was a real Scottish doctor... How could he know someone's background upon first meeting?
https://shuchi.php.co.jp/article/12917
