Excerpts 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.

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ELEMENTARY, MY DEAR WATSON

In the fictional character Sherlock Holmes, we have the master of deduction. Sir Arthur himself 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 subject.

"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 sunbaked 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.

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 am a 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 have seen 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 ended in 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 observation and that of deduction. He is only wanting in knowledge, and that may come in time." 13.

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,"

A MASTER OF OBSERVATION

Excerpts 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. 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 testtube 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. "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-

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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 Copernican Theory and of the composition of the Solar System. 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 extraordinary 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 difficulty 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 tools 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 impatiently: "you say that we go round the sun. If we went round the moon it would not make a pennyworth of difference 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 in the 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 mistake to theorize before you have all the evidence. It biases the judgment." 4.

A MASTER OF KNOWLEDGE

Excerpts 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. "I should like a few more facts before I get so far as a theory ..." 72. "I had," said he, "come to an entirely erroneous conclusion which shows, my dear Watson, how dangerous it always is to reason from insufficient data." 35. "I simply can't leave that case in this condition. Every instinct that I possess cries out against it. It's wrong - it's all wrong - I'll swear that it's wrong. ... Sit down on this bench, Watson, ... and allow me to lay the evidence before you ..." 55. "I'm afraid," said Holmes, smiling, "that all the queen's horses and all the queen's men cannot avail in this matter." 81. "All is well that ends well," said Holmes. 26.

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to be much deeper and more subtle than I at first supposed. I must reconsider my ideas." 17. "Look here Watson," he said when the cloth was cleared; "just sit down in this chair and let me preach to you for a little. I don't know quite what to do, and I should value your advice. Light a cigar and let me expound." 30. "Now Watson," said Holmes, rubbing his hands, "we have half an hour to ourselves. Let us make good use of it. My case is, as I have told you, almost complete; but we must not err on the side of overconfidence. Simple as the case seems now, there may be something deeper underlying it." "Simple!" I ejaculated. "Surely," said he with something of the air of a clinical professor expounding to his class. 20. "Come, come, sir," said Holmes, laughing. "You are like my friend, Dr. Watson, who has a bad habit of telling his stories wrong end foremost. Please arrange your thoughts and let me know, in their due sequence exactly what those events are ..." 73. "At least we may accept it as a working hypothesis." 85.

THINGS OFTEN SEEM INEXPLICABLE

"The more outre and grotesque an incident is the more carefully it deserves to be examined, and the very point which appears to complicate a case is, when duly considered and scientifically handled, the one which is most likely to elucidate it." 70. "This complicates matters," said Gregson. "Heaven knows, they were complicated enough before." "You're sure it doesn't simplify them?" observed Holmes. 7. "This is all an insoluble mystery to me," said I. "It grows darker instead of clearer." "On the contrary," he answered, "it clears every instant. I only require a few missing links to have an entirely connected case." 19. "I should have more faith," he said; "I ought to know by this time that when a fact appears to be opposed to a long train of deductions, it invariably proves to be capable of bearing some other interpretation." 9. "These strange details, far from making the case more difficult, have really had the effect of making it less so." 10.

THE METHOD OF EXCLUSION

"By the method of exclusion, I had arrived at this result, for no other hypothesis would meet the facts."12. "Eliminate all other factors, and the one which remains must be the truth." 14. "You will not apply my precept," he said, shaking his head. "How often have I said to you that when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable must be the truth?" 21. "It is an old maxim of mine that when you have excluded the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth." 37. "We must fall back upon the old axiom that when all other contingencies fail, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth." 82.

THE ART OF REFLECTION

"I think I should like to sit quietly for a few minutes and think it out." 90. "Well now Watson, let us judge the situation by this new information." 75. "Let us see then if we can narrow it down. As I focus my mind upon it, it seems rather less impenetrable." 71. "I knew that seclusion and solitude were very necessary for my friend in those hours of intense mental concentration during which he weighed every particle of evidence, constructed alternative theories, balanced one against the other, and made up his mind as to which points were essential and which immaterial." 57. "All day I turned these facts over in my mind, endeavouring to hit upon some theory which could reconcile them all, and to find that line of least resistance which my poor friend had declared to be the starting-point of every investigation. 46. "I begin to suspect that this matter may turn out

THE RULE OF REASONING BACKWARD

"I have already explained to you that what is out of the common is usually a guide rather than a hindrance. In solving a problem of this sort, the grand thing is to be able to reason backward. That is a very useful accomplishment, and a very easy one, but people do not practise it much. In the everyday affairs of life it is more useful to reason forward, and so the other comes to be neglected. There are fifty who can reason synthetically for one who can reason analytically." "I confess," said I, "that I do not quite follow you." "I hardly expected that you would. Let me see if I can make it clearer. Most people, if you describe a train of events to them, will tell you what the result would be. They can put those events together in their minds, and argue from them that something will come to pass. There are few people, however, who, if you told them a result, would be able to evolve from their own inner consciousness what the steps were which led up to that result. This power is what I mean when I talk of reasoning backward, or analytically." 11. "... we have been compelled to reason backward from

Excerpts 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. effects to causes." 76.

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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.

"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 writhing 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.

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 alternative, 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 had seven 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 should approximate 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.

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 discover 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!"

CLIENT WISE

Excerpts 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. 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, 2. p23. 3. p24. 4. p27. 5. p28. 6. p29. 7. p30. 8. p31. 9. p49. 10. p50. 11. p83. 12. p84. 13. p91. 14. p92. 15. p93. 16. p96. 17. p98. 18. p99. 19. p109. 20. p110. 21. p111. 22. p132. 23. p135. 24. p136. 25. p137. 26. p141. 27. p192. 28. p204. 29. p211. 30. p213. 31. p219. 32. p223. 33. p225. 34. p246. 35. p272. 36. p311. 37. p315. 38. p321. 39. p322. 40. p359. 41. p295. 42. p412. 43. p436. 44. p457. 45. p461. 46. p484. 47. p511. 48. p519. 49. p521. 50. p541. 51. p567. 52. p570. 53. p628. Quarter. 54. p636. 55. p642. 56. p657. 57. p683. 58. p683. 59. p687. 60. p692. 61. p693. 62. p696. 63. p698. 64. p699. 65. p736. 66. p747. 67. p754. 68. p757. A Study in Scarlet. A Study in Scarlet. A Study in Scarlet. A Study in Scarlet. A Study in Scarlet. A Study in Scarlet. A Study in Scarlet. A Study in Scarlet. A Study in Scarlet. A Study in Scarlet. A Study in Scarlet. A Study in Scarlet. The Sign of Four. The Sign of Four. The Sign of Four. The Sign of Four. The Sign of Four. The Sign of Four. The Sign of Four. The Sign of Four. The Sign of Four. The Sign of Four. The Sign of Four. The Sign of Four. The Sign of Four. The Sign of Four. A Case of Identity. The Boscombe Valley Mystery. The Boscombe Valley Mystery. The Boscombe Valley Mystery. Five Orange Pips. Five Orange Pips. Five Orange Pips. The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle. The Adventure of the Speckled Band. The Adventure of the Beryl Coronet. The Adventure of the Beryl Coronet. The Adventure of the Copper Beeches. The Adventure of the Copper Beeches. The Yellow Face. The Musgrave Ritual. The Crooked Man. The Greek Interpreter. The Naval Treaty. The Naval Treaty. The Adventure of the Empty House. The Adventure of the Dancing Men. The Adventure of the Dancing Men. The Adventure of the Dancing Men. The Adventure of the Solitary Cyclist. The Adventure of Black Peter. The Adventure of Black Peter. The Adventure of the Missing ThreeThe The The The The The The The The The The The The The The Adventure of Adventure of Adventure of Hound of the Hound of the Hound of the Hound of the Hound of the Hound of the Hound of the Hound of the Hound of the Hound of the Hound of the Hound of the the Abbey Grange. the Abbey Grange. the Second Stain. Baskervilles. Baskervilles. Baskervilles. Baskervilles. Baskervilles. Baskervilles. Baskervilles. Baskervilles. Baskervilles. Baskervilles. Baskervilles. Baskervilles. 69. p761. 70. p764. 71. p771. 72. p789. 73. p870. 74. p875. 75. p883. 76. p895. 77. p895. 78. p902. 79. p904. 80. p907. 81. p925. Plans. 82. p926. Plans. 83. p929. Plans. 84. p950. The 85. p964. 86. p971. 87. p980. 88. p1014. 89. p1059. 90. p1064. 91. p1068. 92. p1069. 93. p1114. 94. p1121. The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The

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Hound of the Baskervilles. Hound of the Baskervilles. Valley of Fear. Valley of Fear. Adventure of Wisteria Lodge. Adventure of Wisteria Lodge. Adventure of Wisteria Lodge. Adventure of the Cardboard Box. Adventure of the Cardboard Box. Adventure of the Red Circle. Adventure of the Red Circle. Adventure of the Red Circle. Adventure of the Bruce-Partington Adventure Adventure of of the the Bruce-Partington Bruce-Partington

Disappearance of Lady Frances Carfax. The Adventure of the Devil's Foot. His Last Bow. His Last Bow. The Adventure of the Mazarin Stone. The Problem of Thor Bridge. The Problem of Thor Bridge. The Problem of Thor Bridge. The Problem of Thor Bridge. The Adventure of the Retired Colourman. The Adventure of the Retired Colourman.