The Falling Curtain (The Assassination of Sherlock Holmes Book 3) (31 page)

[186]
Holmes: ‘
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’ (
The Boscombe Valley Mystery
).

[187]
Holmes: ‘It is a capital mistake to theorize before you have all the evidence. It biases the judgment’ (Chapter III,
A Study in Scarlet
).

[188]
Holmes: ‘One should always look for a possible alternative and provide against it. It is the first rule of criminal investigation’ (
The Adventure of Black Peter
).

[189]
Holmes: ‘One forms provisional theories and waits for time or fuller knowledge to explode them (
The Adventure of the Sussex Vampire
).

[190]
Holmes: ‘We have compelled to reason backwards from effects to causes (
The Cardboard Box
), and ‘The ideal reasoner,’ he remarked, ‘would, when he has once been shown a single fact in all its bearings, deduce from it not only all the chain of events which led up to it, but also all the results which would follow from it’ (
The Five Orange Pips
).

[191]
Holmes: ‘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’ (
The Musgrave Ritual
), ‘See the value of imagination’ (
Silver Blaze
), and ‘I have been sluggish in mind and wanting in that mixture of imagination and reality which is the basis of my art’ (
The Problem of Thor Bridge
).

[192]
Watson: ‘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’ (Chapter III,
The Hound of the Baskervilles
).

[193]
Holmes’ most famous maxim: ‘How often have I said to you that when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth?’ (Chapter II,
The Sign of Four
).

[194]
Holmes: I am generally able, by the help of my knowledge of the history of crime, to set them straight. There is a strong family resemblance about misdeeds, 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 (Chapter II,
A Study in Scarlet
).

[195]
While in active practice, it was reported by Watson multiple times that Holmes kept a collection of book and files containing his accumulation of knowledge upon a wide variety of subjects. Some of the best examples are the extensive descriptions of volume ‘V’ (
The Adventure of the Sussex Vampire
) and ‘C’ (
The Adventure of the Pharaoh’s Curse
).

[196]
Actually said by Watson (Chapter I,
A Study in Scarlet
), suggesting that Holmes did more than just glance over his ‘brochure’ on the matter (Chapter I,
The Sign of Four
).

[197]
The Bertillon system of measurements was much admired by both Dr. James Mortimer (Chapter I,
The Hound of the Baskervilles
) and by Sherlock Holmes (
The Naval Treaty
).

[198]
Shown to Watson in Chapter I of
The Sign of Four
.

[199]
The auricle is the pinna, or outer part of the human ear. Natural variations are often inherited, such as the free or attached lobule, while the conchal angle describes how far the ear protrudes from the side of the head.

[200]
Holmes felt that ears were of sufficient importance to devote two chapters to them, which were originally published in the 1887 edition of the ‘Anthropological Journal’ (
The Adventure of the Cardboard Box
).

[201]
Mentioned in the non-Canonical story
The Adventure of the First Star
.

[202]
Holmes attempted to verify how far bruises may be produced after death (Chapter I,
A Study in Scarlet
) and noted that: ‘the dating of scars is a tricky business, but I am confident in my conclusion’ (
The Falling Curtain
).

[203]
Never formally referred to, however, Holmes was clearly a student of handwriting, as evidenced by multiple cases, perhaps most notably in
The Reigate Squires
.

[204]
Never formally mentioned as being written up as a monograph, it is hardly surprising that Holmes would have done so, given the prominence it plays in Chapter XV of
The Hound of the Baskervilles
.

[205]
Holmes used both a microscope and his famous magnifying lenses in a wide variety of cases throughout the Canon.

[206]
Watson witnessed the final moments of the invention of this wondrous test, which was never again used in the Canon (Chapter I,
A Study in Scarlet
).

[207]
Holmes showed this to Watson in Chapter II of
The Sign of Four
.

[208]
As demonstrated in
The Five Orange-Pips
, Holmes was very familiar with the various forms of dirt found throughout London, the tracking of which allowing him to deduce the movements of people whose shoes he examined.

[209]
Mentioned in Chapter IV of
A Study in Scarlet
,
The Sign of Four
, and
The Boscombe Valley Mystery
.

[210]
This is likely the monograph that Holmes alludes to writing in Chapter XIX of
The Gate of Gold
.

[211]
Mentioned in
The Adventure of the Dancing Men
.

[212]
Mentioned in Chapter II of
The Hound of the Baskervilles
.

[213]
Mentioned by Holmes in Chapter II of
The Hound of the Baskervilles
to be a “special hobby” since he was very young, this is the first proof that he finally formalized this knowledge into a monograph.

[214]
Holmes mentioned his plans to write this in
A Case of Identity
.

[215]
Holmes mentions this familiarity in
The Adventure of the Priory School
.

[216]
Holmes mentions his intention to write this in
The Adventure of the Dying Detective
.

[217]
Holmes mentions his intention to write this in
The Adventure of the Creeping Man
.

[218]
Chapter II,
A Study in Scarlet
.