Professional Documents
Culture Documents
3 September 2004
Sherlock Holmes was intended by his creator, Arthur Thus, the scientist requires the power of making
Conan Doyle, to be a ‘scientific detective’. Conan Doyle ‘retrospective prophesies’.
criticized his predecessor Edgar Allan Poe for giving his In ‘The Five Orange Pips’, Holmes describes his method in
creation – Inspector Dupin – only the ‘illusion’ of much the same way as Huxley had characterized the method
scientific method. Conan Doyle believed that he had of the historical sciences, including the reference to Cuvier:
succeeded where Poe had failed; thus, he has Watson
remark that Holmes has ‘brought detection as near an The ideal reasoner.would, when he had once been shown
exact science as it will ever be brought into the world.’ a single fact in all its bearings, deduce from it not only all
By examining Holmes’ methods, it becomes clear that the chain of events which led up to it but also all the results
Conan Doyle modelled them on certain images of which would follow from it. As Cuvier could correctly
science that were popular in mid- to late-19th century describe a whole animal by the contemplation of a single
Britain. Contrary to a common view, it is also evident bone, so the observer who has thoroughly understood one
that rather than being responsible for the invention of link in a series of incidents should be able to accurately
forensic science, the creation of Holmes was influenced state all the other ones, both before and after.
by the early development of it.
www.sciencedirect.com 0160-9327/$ - see front matter Q 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.endeavour.2004.07.007
Review Endeavour Vol.28 No.3 September 2004 105
Figure 3. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, from a portrait by Sidney Paget in 1897. Image
supplied by the National Portrait Gallery, London (www.npg.org.uk) and repro-
duced with permission of Charles Foley, on behalf of the Estate of Dame Jean
Conan Doyle.
Macaulay’s interpretation suggested that Bacon’s method sends him, he is in fact in Devonshire collecting his own
required that facts be collected blindly, without any facts and devising a theory at the same time.
possible theory in mind. Once these facts are collected, Another way in which Holmes deviates from Macau-
the ‘interpreter’ of Nature plugs them into tables of lay’s image of Bacon is in the importance he gives to
presence, absence and variation, and mechanically applies imagination. Holmes often admonishes the inspectors of
eliminative induction. After this exclusion is performed, Scotland Yard for lacking this quality. In terms of fact
what remains is the truth. In his autobiographical work collection, Holmes notes, they ‘lead the world for thor-
Through the Magic Door, Conan Doyle claims that oughness and method’; yet they are often unsuccessful
Macaulay’s Essays [6] were among his favorite reading because of their ‘occasional want of imaginative intuition’
material when he was young; therefore, it is most probable (‘The Adventure of the Three Gables’). Importantly,
that he read Macaulay’s essay on Bacon. although he speaks of imagination, Holmes is not endor-
A central aspect of Macaulay’s image of Bacon is sing the use of guesswork to formulate a hypothesis. On
reflected in Holmes’ famous and often repeated claim the contrary, Holmes asserts that ‘I never guess. It is a
that ‘when you have excluded the impossible, whatever shocking habit – destructive to the logical faculty’ (‘The
remains, however improbable, must be the truth’ (‘The Sign of Four’). In The Hound of the Baskervilles, when Dr
Adventure of the Beryl Coronet’). The importance of Mortimer claims that ‘we are coming now rather into the
reaching a conclusion by eliminating all but one possibility realm of guesswork’, Holmes corrects him: ‘Say, rather,
is noted in several of the works. For example, in ‘The into the region where we balance probabilities and choose
Adventure of the Blanched Soldier’, Holmes uses the the most likely. It is the scientific use of the imagination,
eliminative method to solve the mystery of the incarcera- but we always have some material basis on which to start
tion of Godfrey Emsworth by his family. Holmes realizes our speculations.’ What he means by the ‘scientific use of
that there are only three possible reasons for Godfrey’s the imagination’ – a phrase popularized by John Tyndall
family to hide him as they have done. He eliminates the in an 1870 lecture – is not unfettered guesswork but
first two alternatives, by seeing that they are inconsistent rather, as the reference to ‘balancing probabilities’ makes
with some of the facts of the case, and then concludes that clear, a series of inferences [8]. His ‘rapid deductions’
‘there remained the third possibility, into which, rare and might be ‘as swift as intuitions’, but they are ‘always
unlikely as it was, everything seemed to fit.’ Indeed, he
founded on a logical basis’ (‘The Adventure of the Speckled
was right: the boy was thought to have leprosy, and he was
Band’). In The Hound of the Baskervilles, Holmes’
hidden to prevent his being sent to a leper home.
conclusion that the warning letter to Sir Henry was
Holmes also expresses a view similar to Macaulay’s
composed in a hotel seemed to Mortimer to be guesswork,
reading of Bacon when he notes that facts must be
but was actually based on observation and inference.
collected before theories are formed. ‘It is a capital
Holmes realizes that the address was written with a pen
mistake’, Holmes remarks, ‘to theorize before one has
that had run dry three times, indicating that there was
data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories,
very little ink both in the pen and in the ink bottle. This
instead of theories to suit facts’ (‘A Scandal in Bohemia’).
would have been common in hotel rooms, but not in the
At times, he even suggests that the detective must
private homes of the well educated, who would be the most
approach the facts with a tabula rasa, a mind completely
devoid of ideas or theories: ‘We approached the case.with likely to cut words from The Times. Thus, the imaginative
an absolutely blank mind, which is always an advantage. intuition he chides the police for lacking seems to be a
We had formed no theories. We were simply there to creative aptitude for making logical inferences from the
observe’ (‘The Adventure of the Cardboard Box’). In The facts.
Hound of the Baskervilles, Watson is sent off to Devonshire These aspects of Holmes’ method resemble the image of
to report all the facts back to Holmes, who claims to be in Bacon depicted by Whewell. As Whewell notes, Bacon
London synthesizing these facts into a theory. ‘I will not decisively rejects guesswork as a route to hypotheses. But
bias your mind by suggesting theories or suspicions, he also denies that mere eliminative inference is enough.
Watson.I wish you simply to report facts in the fullest Rather, Bacon emphasizes that conclusions should be
manner to me, and you can leave me to do the theorizing.’ reached by chains of inferences of various kinds. Although
However, an alternative image of Bacon’s method was Bacon, as characterized by Whewell, does not explicitly
also popular during the 19th century, and is equally indicate a role for ‘imagination’, he does describe one of the
reflected in Holmes’ ‘rules of deduction’. The polymath necessary forms of reasoning as requiring ‘rather a
William Whewell, among others, characterized Bacon’s sagacity, and a kind of hunting by sense, than a science’
method in a more complex and accurate way [7]. This more [9,10]. Although there is no direct evidence that Conan
accurate reading of Bacon’s method recognized that Bacon Doyle read Whewell, he does seem to have been influenced
did not advocate the ‘blind’ collection of facts. Rather, by the image of Bacon depicted by Whewell, as well as that
Bacon famously criticized the ‘men of experiment’ or the portrayed by Macaulay.
‘empirics’ who collect facts blindly, like ants collect matter.
Bacon recognized that fact collection and theorizing occur
simultaneously to some extent. Holmes, too, often allows Holmes: the ‘father of scientific criminal detection’?
this. Thus, for example, although Holmes tells Watson in In A Study in Scarlet, Dr Watson first meets Holmes in a
The Hound of the Baskervilles that he will remain in laboratory, where Holmes has been experimenting on
London forming theories with the ‘blind’ facts Watson bloodstains.
www.sciencedirect.com
Review Endeavour Vol.28 No.3 September 2004 107
References
1 Huxley, T.H. (1896) On the method of Zadig. In Collected Essays
(Vol. IV), p. 18, D. Appleton (New York, NY, USA)
2 Rupke, N.A. (1994) Richard Owen, Victorian Naturalist, Yale
University Press pp. 346–414
3 Huxley (1896), p. 9
4 Conan Doyle, A. (1924) Memories and Adventures, Hodder and
Stoughton
5 Liebow, E. (1982) Dr. Joe Bell, Model for Sherlock Holmes, Bowling
Green University Popular Press
6 Macaulay, T.B. (1877) Lord Bacon. In Critical and Historical Essays:
Contributions to the Edinburgh Review, pp. 346–414, Longmans
Green (London, UK)
7 Whewell, W. (1857) Spedding’s complete edition of the works of Bacon.
In Edinburgh Review 106, 287–322
8 Tyndall, J. (1871) The scientific use of the imagination. In Fragments
of Science for Unscientific People: A Series of Detached Essays,
Lectures and Reviews, pp. 127–163, D. Appleton (New York, NY, USA)
Figure 5. The front cover of November 1906 issue of Collier’s magazine, by F.D.
9 Bacon, F. (1858–1861) The Works of Francis Bacon (Vol. 4)
Steele. In ‘The Norwood Builder’, Sherlock Holmes discovers an attempt to use a
fraudulent fingerprint to frame an innocent man. Image supplied by, and (J. Spedding et al., eds.) Longmans, p. 421
reproduced with permission of, The British Library (shelfmark A53). 10 Snyder, L.J. (1999) Renovating the Novum Organum: Bacon, Whewell
and Induction. Studies in History and Philosophy of Science 30,
strangulation, hanging and choking deaths [21]. By 1880, 531–557
11 Cited in Berg, S.O. (1970) Sherlock Holmes, father of scientific crime
Henry Faulds had suggested in a letter to Nature that detection. The Journal of Criminal Law, Criminology and Police
fingerprints could be used to identify criminals; a system Science 61, pp. 446–452 (op. cit. p. 446)
of fingerprint identification was established in Scotland 12 Smith, S. (1959) Mostly Murder, Harrap (Edinburgh, UK)
Yard by 1901 (five years before Holmes used a forged 13 Berg, S.O. (1970), pp. 446–452
14 Nardon, P. (1967) Conan Doyle: A Biography, (Partridge, F. trans.),
thumbprint in the plot of “The Norwood Builder”)
Holt, Rinehart and Winston
(Figure 5) [22]. The first use of forensic ballistics in a 15 Gerber, S.M. (1983) A study in scarlet: blood identification in 1875. In
court case occurred in 1784, and several detailed studies of Chemistry and Crime: From Sherlock Holmes to Today’s Courtroom
ballistics were conducted during the second half of the (Gerber, S.M. ed.), pp. 31–35, American Chemical Society (Columbus,
19th century [23]. Sherlock Holmes may have been the OH, USA)
16 Thorwald, J. (1965) The Century of the Detective (Winston, R. and
first to write a ‘treatise on tobacco ash’ (A Study in Scarlet
Winston, C. trans.), Harcourt, Brace and World
and ‘The Sign of Four’), but his doing so reflected a spirit of 17 Cited in Berg, S.O. (1970), p. 446)
scientific inquiry that was already being applied to 18 Thorwald, J. (1965), pp. 267–300
criminal detection. Conan Doyle was exposed to this 19 Rhodes, H.T.F. (1968) Alphonse Bertillon, Father of Scientific Detec-
research while in medical school; we know that he tion, Greenwood (Westport, CT, USA), p. 126
20 Smyth, F. (1980) Cause of Death: The Story of Forensic Science, Van
attended lectures on crime and criminals by Sir Henry Nostrand Reinhold, p. 146 and p. 184
Little-John, who was the Police Surgeon of Edinburgh as 21 Thorwald, J. (1965), p. 161
well as the Professor of Medical Jurisprudence at the 22 Cole, S.A. (2001) Suspect Identities: A History of Fingerprinting and
university [24]. Criminal Investigation, Harvard University Press, pp. 73–94
23 See Smyth, F. (1980), pp. 72–75 and Thorwald, J. (1965), pp. 417–420
24 Jones, H.E. (1904) The original of Sherlock Holmes. Collier’s January
Conclusion 9, pp. 14–20
Rather than inventing forensic science, the Holmes stories 25 Smyth, F. (1980), pp. 25–26
instead presented the ‘science of criminal detection’ in a 26 Thorwarld, J. (1965), p. 177
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