The Real 'Sherlock Holmes' Dead
The Real 'Sherlock Holmes' Dead is an article published in the Weekly Dispatch on 8 october 1911.
The Real 'Sherlock Holmes' Dead
Dr. Joseph Bell.
Famous Scottish Surgeon Who Inspired Conan Doyle.
METHODS OF DETECTION.
Doctor's Amazing Discoveries From Minute Details.
The original "Sherlock Holmes," Dr. Joseph Bell, the well-known Scottish surgeon, has passed away at his residence, Maurice Wood, Midlothian. The gentle art of discovering a murderer by his cigar ash was evolved in Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's mind as the result of a minute observation of the inductive methods of Dr. Bell.
It was in Sir Arthur's student days at Universtty. Young Doyle acted as Dr. Bell's ward clerk, noting down the particulars of the cases. Sir Arthur describes Dr. Bell as a man with sharp, piercing grey eyes, eagle nose, and striking features, who would "sit in his chair, with fingers together — he was very dexterous with his hands — and just work at the man or woman haters him."
With a face like a Red Indian he would diagnose the patients as they came in. "He would tell them their symptoms, he would give them details of their lives, and he would hardly ever make a mistake. 'Gentlemen,' he would say to the students, 'I am not quite sure whether this man is a cork cutter or a slate. I observe a slight hardening on one side of his forefinger a little thickening on the outside of his thumb, and that is a sure sign that he is either one or the other.'
"He would observe to another patient: 'You are a soldier, a non-commissioned officer, and you have served in Bermuda.' And then, turning to the students, he would point out that the man came into the room without taking his hat off, as he would go into the orderly room; that his air showed he was a non-commissioned officer, and that he had on his forehead a peculiar rash known only in Bermuda. 'A cobbler I see,' the professor would begin on approaching another patient, directing the students as he spoke to the inside knee of the man's trousers, which was worn where he had rested the lapstone."
So the amazing Sherlock Holmes came to be fashioned on the lines of the doctor. Developing his theories one day Dr. Bell pointed out the extreme importance of small details. "Physiognony helps you to nationality, and accent to district. The shoemaker and the tailor are quite different. The soldier and the sailor differ in gait. The ornamentation on the watch chain of the successful settler will tell you where he made his money.
Not always, however, did he hit the nail squarely on the head, as the following anecdote will show: Lecturing one day on emphysema, which is the unnatural distention of a part with air, he introduced to his class a patient suffering from that complaint. "Now, gentlemen," he observed in his most assured manner, "we shall probably find that this patient used to play some musical instrument." Turning to the patient he said, "You belonged to a band, did you not?" "Yes, Sir." "Now tell the class the sort of instrument you played."
"The big drum," was the somewhat disconcerting reply.
Dr. Bell was born in 1837 he was a familiar figure as he drove through the streets of Edinburgh, his gleaming eyes intent on everything.
On hearing the news of Dr. Bell's death Sir Arthur Conan Doyle paid his simple tribute to the personality of the great surgeon in the following short message from Windlesham, Crowborough, Sussex: "Personally I can say very little of Dr. Joseph Bell, for I have never met him in his own house, and really only knew him as my professor. As such I shall always see him very clearly; his stiff, bristling, iron-grey hair, his clear, half-humorous, half-critical grey eyes, his eager face and swarthy skin. He had a very spare figure, as I remember him, and walked with a jerky, energetic gait, his head carried high and his arms swinging. He had a dry humour and a remarkable command of the vernacular, into which he easily fell when addressing patients. His skill as a surgeon and his charm as a lecturer are, of course, proverbial."
