1877890 the Principles of Sherlock Holmes

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APPENDIX AExcerpts from The Complete Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle to establish the Sherlock Method.

...courtesy Jock F. McTavish, 275 9853, Calgary. 14 October 1992. PAGE 1

ELEMENTARY, MY DEAR WATSON

In the fictional character Sherlock Holmes, we

have the master of deduction. Sir Arthur him-

self was a physician trained in diagnostics

whose hobbies included investigation of the

paranormal. Sherlock offers not merely

exquisite entertainment, but also lessons in

problem solving. To discover Sherlock's"Method", let us gather his advice on the sub-

ject.

PROFESSIONAL QUALITIES

"They say genius is an infinite capacity for taking

pains," he remarked with a smile. "It's a very bad

definition, but it does apply to detective work." 8.

"I never make exceptions. An exception disproves

the rule." 16.

"But why not eat?"

"Because the faculties become refined when you

starve them. Why, surely, as a doctor, my dear Watson,

you must admit that what your digestion gains in the

way of blood supply is so much lost to the brain. I ama brain, Watson. The rest of me is a mere appendix.

Therefore, it is the brain I must consider." 88.

"We all need help sometimes," said I. 22.

One of Sherlock Holmes's defects - if, indeed, one

may call it a defect - was that he was exceedingly

loath to communicate his full plans to any other person

until the instant of their fulfilment. Partly it came

no doubt from his own masterful nature, which loved to

dominate and surprise those who were around him. Partly

also from his professional caution, which urged him

never to take any chances. The result, however, was

very trying for those who were acting as his agents and

assistants." 67.

"Yes," he said in answer to my remark, "you haveseen me miss my mark before, Watson. I have an instinct

for such things, and yet it has sometimes played me

false. It seemed a certainty when first it flashed

across my mind in the cell at Winchester, but one

drawback of an active mind is that one can always

conceive alternative explanations which would make our

scent a false one. And yet - and yet - Well, Watson, we

can but try." 92.

"I can afford to talk of my blunders, for you know

my work well enough to be aware of my successes." 86.

"I have been beaten four times - three times by

men, and once by a woman." 31.

"I said that he was my superior in observation and

deduction. If the art of the detective began and endedin reasoning from an armchair, my brother would be the

greatest criminal agent that ever lived. But he has no

ambition and no energy. ... he was absolutely

incapable of working out the practical points which

must be gone into before a case could be laid before a

judge or jury." 43. (In reference to his brother

Mycroft Holmes.)

"He has two out of the three qualities necessary

for the ideal detective. He has the power of observa-

tion and that of deduction. He is only wanting in

knowledge, and that may come in time." 13.

A MASTER OF OBSERVATION

"I will not bias your mind by suggesting theories

or suspicions, Watson," said he; "I wish you simply to

report facts in the fullest possible manner to me, and

you can leave me to do the theorizing." 63.

"By George!" cried the inspector. "How ever did you

see that?"

"Because I looked for it." 48.

"Sherlock Holmes had listened with the utmost

intentness to the statement ... He now drew out his

notebook and jotted down one or two memoranda." 50.

He held his open notebook upon his knee, and from

time to time he jotted down figures and memoranda in

the light of his pocket-lantern. 18.

"This case is quite sufficiently complicated to

start with without the further difficulty of false

information." 89.

"It is just these very simple things which are

extremely liable to be overlooked." 24.

"The world is full of obvious things which nobody

by any chance ever observes." 58.

"On the contrary, to my mind nothing could be more

clear. Let me run over the principal steps. We

approached the case, you remember, with an absolutely

blank mind, which is always an advantage. We had formed

no theories. We were simply there to observe and to

draw inferences from our observations." 77.

"... (the old home was) surrounded by a high sun-

baked wall mottled with lichens and topped with moss,

the sort of wall - "

"Cut out the poetry, Watson," said Holmes severely.

"I note that it was a high brick wall." 93.

I had imagined that Sherlock Holmes would at once

have hurried into the house and plunged into a study of

the mystery. Nothing appeared to be further from his

intention. With an air of nonchalance which, under the

circumstances, seemed to me to border upon affectation,he lounged up and down the pavement, and gazed vacantly

at the ground, the sky, the opposite houses and the

line of railings. ... I had no doubt that he could see

a great deal which was hidden from me. 5.

"I can see nothing," said I, handing it back to my

friend.

"On the contrary, Watson, you can see everything

You fail, however, to reason from what you see. You are

too timid in drawing your inferences." 34.

A MASTER OF DEDUCTION

"We are coming now rather into the region of

guesswork," said Dr. Mortimer.

"Say, rather, into the region where we balance

probabilities and choose the most likely. It is the

scientific use of the imagination, but we have always

some material basis on which to start our speculation."

59.

"Ah, that is good luck. I could only say what was

the balance of probability. I did not at all expect to

be so accurate.

"But it was not mere guesswork?"

"No, no: I never guess. It is a shocking habit -

destructive to the logical faculty. What seems strange

to you is only so because you do not follow my train of

thought or observe the small facts upon which large

inferences may depend." 15.

"If I take it up I must understand every detail,"


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said he. "Take time to consider. The smallest point may

be the most essential." 78.

"From a drop of water ... a logician could infer

the possibility of an Atlantic or a Niagara without

having seen or heard of one or the other. So all life

is a great chain, the nature of which is known whenever

we are shown a single link of it. Like all other arts,

the Science of Deduction and Analysis is one which can

only be acquired by long and patient study, nor is life

long enough to allow any mortal to attain the highest

possible perfection in it." 2.

"Elementary," said he. "It is one of those

instances where the reasoner can produce an effect

which seems remarkable to his neighbour, because the

latter has missed the one little point which is the

basis of the deduction. ... I hold in this hand several

threads of one of the strangest cases which ever

perplexed a man's brain, and yet I lack the one or two

which are needful to complete my theory. But I'll have

them, Watson, I'll have them!" 42.

"You said you had a clue?"

"Well, we have several, but we can only test their

value by further inquiry. The most difficult crime to

track is the one which is purposeless. Now this is not

purposeless. Who is it who profits by it?" 44.

"You see, my dear Watson" - he propped his test-

tube in the rack, and began to lecture with the air of

a professor addressing his class - "it is not really

difficult to construct a series of inferences, each

dependent upon its predecessor and each simple in

itself. If, after doing so, one simply knocks out all

the central inferences and presents one's audience with

the starting-point and the conclusion, one may produce

a startling, though possibly a meretricious, effect."

47.

"Let us take it link by link." 74.

Holmes shook his head gravely. "It would cease to

be a danger if we could define it," said he." 38.

"You have a theory?"

"Yes, a provisional one." 40.

"Ah! there lies our problem. There is one rather

obvious line of investigation." 79.

"I thought over every possible course, and this is

the best." 25.

"Circumstantial evidence is a very tricky thing,"

answered Holmes thoughtfully. "It may seem to point

very straight to one thing, but if you shift your own

point of view a little, you may find it pointing in an

equally uncompromising manner to something entirely

different." 28.

"You are right," said Holmes demurely; "you do find

it very hard to tackle the facts." 29.

A MASTER OF KNOWLEDGE"Education never ends, Watson. It is a series of

lessons with the greatest for the last." 80.

"Read it up - you really should. There is nothing

new under the sun. It has all been done before." 6.

"Never mind," said Holmes, laughing; "it is my

business to know things. Perhaps I have trained myself

to see what others overlook." 27.

"There is a strong family resemblance about mis-

deeds, and if you have all the details of a thousand at

your finger ends, it is odd if you can't unravel the

thousand and first." 3.

His ignorance was as remarkable as his knowledge

... My surprise reached a climax;, however, when I

found incidentally that he was ignorant of the Coper-

nican Theory and of the composition of the Solar Sys-

tem. That any civilized human being in this nineteenth

century should not be aware that the earth travelled

round the sun appeared to me to be such an extraordi-

nary fact that I could hardly realize it.

"You appear to be astonished," he said, smiling at

my expression of surprise. "Now that I do know it I

shall do my best to forget it."

"To forget it!"

"You see," he explained, "I consider that a man's

brain originally is like a little empty attic, and you

have to stock it with such furniture as you choose. A

fool takes in all the lumber of every sort that he

comes across, so that the knowledge which might be

useful to him gets crowded out, or at best is jumbled

up with a lot of other things, so that he has a diffi-

culty in laying his hands upon it. Now the skilful

workman is very careful indeed as to what he takes into

his brain-attic. He will have nothing but the tool

which may help him in doing his work, but of these he

has a large assortment, and all in the most perfect

order. It is a mistake to think that that little room

has elastic walls and can distend to any extent. Depend

upon it there comes a time when for every addition of

knowledge you forget something that you knew before. It

is of the highest importance, therefore, not to have

useless facts elbowing out the useful ones."

"But the Solar System!" I protested.

"What the deuce is it to me?" he interrupted impa-

tiently: "you say that we go round the sun. If we went

round the moon it would not make a pennyworth of dif-

ference to me or to my work." 1.

Holmes grinned at the last item. "Well," he said,

"I say now, as I said then, that a man should keep his

little brain-attic stocked with all the furniture that

he is likely to use, and the rest he can put away inthe lumber-room of his library, where he can get it if

he wants it." 33.

"... I cannot guarantee that I carry all the facts

in my mind. Intense mental concentration has a curious

way of blotting out what has passed. The barrister who

has his case at his fingers' ends and is able to argue

with an expert upon his own subject finds that a week

or two of the courts will drive it all out of his head

once more. So each of my cases displaces the last

..."69.

"I propose to devote my declining years to the

composition of a textbook, which shall focus the whole

art of detection into one volume." 54.

KNOWING WHEN IS ENOUGH

"Surely we have a case."

"Not a shadow of one - only surmise and conjecture.

We should be laughed out of court if we came with such

a story and such evidence." 66.

"I think that I have seen now all that there is to

see," said he. 36.

"Data! data! data!" he cried impatiently. "I can't

make bricks without clay." 39.

"No data yet," he answered. "It is a capital mis-

take to theorize before you have all the evidence. It

biases the judgment." 4.


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effects to causes." 76.

THE NEED FOR RECESS

"Well, I gave my mind a thorough rest by plunging

into a chemical analysis. One of our greatest statesmen

has said that a change of work is the best rest. So it

is." 23.

"Sherlock Holmes had, in a very remarkable degree,

the power of detaching his mind at will. For two hours

the strange business in which we had been involved

appeared to be forgotten ..." 60.

One of the most remarkable characteristics of

Sherlock Holmes was his power of throwing his brain out

of action and switching all his thoughts on to lighter

things whenever he had convinced himself that he could

no longer work to advantage. 83.

THE RULE OF PERSPECTIVE

"You know my methods in such cases, Watson. I put

myself in the man's place, and, having first gauged his

intelligence, I try to imagine how I should myself have

proceeded under the same circumstances." 41.

"You'll get results, Inspector, by always putting

yourself in the other fellow's place, and thinking what

you would do yourself. It takes some imagination, but

it pays." 94.

CONTINGENCIES AND ALTERNATIVES

"... One should always look for a possible alter-

native, and provide against it. It is the first rule of

criminal investigation." 51.

"Very well," said Holmes, good-humouredly. "We all

learn by experience, and your lesson this time is that

you should never lose sight of the alternative." 52.

"We progress, my dear Watson, we progress. I hadseven different schemes for getting a glimpse of that

telegram, but I could hardly hope to succeed the very

first time." 53.

"Well, I don't profess to understand it yet. ...

But we hold several threads in our hands, and the odds

are that one or other of them guides us to the truth."

61.

"There go two of my threads, Watson. There is

nothing more stimulating than a case where everything

goes against you. We must cast round for another

scent." 62.

"Now we will take another line of reasoning. When

you follow two separate chains of thought, Watson, you

will find some point of intersection which shouldapproximate to the truth." 84.

"Keep your revolver near you night and day, and

never relax your precautions." 64.

"Luck had been against us again and again in this

inquiry, but now at last it came to my aid." 65.

"We owe you a deep apology, Sir Henry, for having

exposed you to this fright. I was prepared for a hound,

but not for such a creature as this. And the fog gave

us little time to receive him." 68.

CLIENT WISE

"Any news?" he asked eagerly.

"My report, as I expected, is a negative one," said

Holmes. ...

"You have not lost heart, then?"

"By no means." 45.

"I have no desire to make mysteries, but it is

impossible at the moment of action to enter into long

and complex explanations." 49.

"To tell the truth" - he sank his face into his

thin, white hands - "I have felt helpless. I have felt

like one of those poor rabbits when the snake is writh-

ing towards it. I seem to be in the grasp of some

resistless, inexorable evil, which no foresight and no

precautions can guard against."

"Tut! tut!" cried Sherlock Holmes. "You must act,

man, or you are lost. Nothing but energy can save you.

This is no time for despair." 32.

"... meanwhile take my assurance that the clouds

are lifting and that I have every hope that the light

of truth is breaking through." 91.

"Nay, madam, there again you ask me more than I can

possibly answer." 56.

"Start her up, Watson, for it's time that we were

on our way. I have a check for five hundred pounds

which should be cashed early, for the drawer is quite

capable of stopping it if he can." 87.

CONCLUSIONS

The Sherlock Method then is founded upon common

sense and specialist knowledge. Its exercise

depends upon sufficient observation. Deduction

is the skill tool to forge links in a chain of

reason. Solution is singular.

This detective procedure has much application

in any problem solving situation. It is used to

gather the data, to link the data, and so dis-

cover the truth behind the data.

This process is completely logical. It seems

otherwise only to those who skip steps: either

of data or reason. To those who master the

method, things are "Elementary, my dear

Watson!"


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The Complete Sherlock Holmes in two volumes published

by Doubleday. Original copyrights by Harper and

Brothers, Sir A.C. Doyle, Doubleday, Collier's Weekly,

International Magazine Company and Liberty Weekly.

NOTES:

1. p21, A Study in Scarlet.

2. p23. A Study in Scarlet.











13. p91. The Sign of Four.














27. p192. A Case of Identity.

28. p204. The Boscombe Valley Mystery.



31. p219. Five Orange Pips.



34. p246. The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle.

35. p272. The Adventure of the Speckled Band.

36. p311. The Adventure of the Beryl Coronet.

37. p315. The Adventure of the Beryl Coronet.38. p321. The Adventure of the Copper Beeches.

39. p322. The Adventure of the Copper Beeches.

40. p359. The Yellow Face.

41. p295. The Musgrave Ritual.

42. p412. The Crooked Man.

43. p436. The Greek Interpreter.

44. p457. The Naval Treaty.

45. p461. The Naval Treaty.

46. p484. The Adventure of the Empty House.

47. p511. The Adventure of the Dancing Men.



50. p541. The Adventure of the Solitary Cyclist.

51. p567. The Adventure of Black Peter.

52. p570. The Adventure of Black Peter.

53. p628. The Adventure of the Missing Three-

Quarter.54. p636. The Adventure of the Abbey Grange.

55. p642. The Adventure of the Abbey Grange.

56. p657. The Adventure of the Second Stain.

57. p683. The Hound of the Baskervilles.














71. p771. The Valley of Fear.

72. p789. The Valley of Fear.

73. p870. The Adventure of Wisteria Lodge.



76. p895. The Adventure of the Cardboard Box.

77. p895. The Adventure of the Cardboard Box.

78. p902. The Adventure of the Red Circle.



81. p925. The Adventure of the Bruce-Partington

Plans.


Plans.


Plans.

84. p950. The Disappearance of Lady Frances Carfax.

85. p964. The Adventure of the Devil's Foot.

86. p971. His Last Bow.

87. p980. His Last Bow.

88. p1014. The Adventure of the Mazarin Stone.

89. p1059. The Problem of Thor Bridge.




93. p1114. The Adventure of the Retired Colourman.

94. p1121. The Adventure of the Retired Colourman.

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1877890 the Principles of Sherlock Holmes