The first Sherlock Holmes’ Novel as a primer to a new investigation science-
Analysis and Deduction-
Observation and deduction are the lifeblood of the first Sherlock Holmes novel, A Study in Scarlet, especially in terms of the novel’s format and characterization of Sherlock Holmes. Much of the novel is presented as “reminiscences” from John Watson’s journal, a record of his observations of both the case and Holmes. The first interaction between Watson and the consulting detective represents the essence of the Holmes-Watson dynamic throughout the story: Holmes is attentive to clues to which others are oblivious, allowing him to quickly deduce information (in this case, Watson’s recent return from Afghanistan), and Watson is astonished by Holmes’ abilities.
The narrator devotes an entire chapter to “The Science of Deduction,” in which Watson makes his own observations of Holmes, attempting to determine the nature of his roommate’s occupation based on the strengths and weaknesses in Holmes’ knowledge. However, Watson finds himself unable to deduce what Holmes does for a living. By contrast, in his article “The Book of Life,” Holmes claims that he can ascertain another person’s history simply with careful observation
Holmes’ observational and deduction skills are crucial to his characterization, as these skills originally belonged to the real-life person who inspired Doyle’s creation of Holmes: Joseph Bell. Doyle’s former mentor, Bell was a surgeon with keen deductive reasoning skills. Like Holmes, he often made deductions about people based on his observations of minute details. While Watson’s purpose in the novel is mainly to admire Holmes’ skills (and thus Joseph Bell’s skills), he also serves as a foil to Holmes. Unlike Watson, who makes observations about Holmes but cannot analyse them, Holmes skilfully employs both observation and analysis in his detective work. However, it is not merely the analytical skills that distinguish a great detective but also the ability to use them carefully. For example, though Lestrade spots the word “rache” at the crime scene first, he incorrectly jumps to the wrong conclusion that the writer had meant to write “Rachel.” Holmes, on the other hand, observes the exaggerated German styling of the lettering and deduces that the murderer had written the German word for “revenge” in order to throw the police off his trail.
“He appears to have a passion for definite and exact knowledge….Yes, but it may be pushed to excess. When it comes to beating the subjects in the dissecting-rooms with a stick, it is certainly taking rather a bizarre shape.” This said by Watson depicts the intensity of minute analysis and deduction Holmes is seen to be applying.
The key elements of Sherlock Holmes’ strategy – the Science of Deduction and Analysis – have parallels with the diagnostic process employed in clinical medicine. Holmes stresses the importance of approaching a problem with a mind devoid of preconceived ideas or theories and of collection all facts before forming a hypothesis (“… don’t theorize before you have all the evidence.”). A good capacity for observation is also of great value according to Holmes (“Observation with me is second nature.”) as is collecting all facts and recording all details, even those that are not immediately apparent.
Holmes furthermore emphasizes the importance of collecting a large amount of information that is likely to result in the resolution of the problem and then eliminate irrelevant facts (“Whenever you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.”) By creating a “scientific detective” who could demonstrate the logical steps leading to his invariably correct conclusions, Conan Doyle gave the public a criminal catcher they could trust.
In the fictional universe Sherlock Holmes inhabits, logicians are capable of astounding feats that seem well beyond the abilities of their real-world counterparts. According to Holmes himself,
“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 […]. By a man’s fingernails, by his coat-sleeve, by his boot, by his trouser-knees, by the callosities of his forefinger and thumb, by his expression, by his shirt-cuffs—by each of these things a man’s calling is plainly revealed. That all united should fail to enlighten the competent inquirer in any case is almost inconceivable.” Dismissing Holmes’ claims as fiction may be tempting but would be a mistake for he describes real-world skill.
Through Holmes, Arthur Conan Doyle formed his own picture of the “Science of Deduction and Analysis”. On occasion, Conan Doyle lets Holmes depict this picture, explaining the principles of logic and probability that support his conclusions, and echoing in the fiction the real-world epistemological views of early proponents of George Boole’s ‘new logic’, in particular, Stanley William Jevons (1835–1882
Sherlock Holmes’ goal is typically answering a ‘big’ question. That goal may in turn be characterized as the identification of the individual, object, or location satisfying the definite description occurring in the ‘big’ question. The inquiry terminates when this ‘big’ question receives a conclusive answer, that is, when Holmes and the other parties involved all agree that a given individual, object, or location, satisfies the definite description. Sherlock Holmes’ ‘big’ question is answered when there is a deductive. We witness this analysis strengthening Holmes’ background knowledge and transform an initial non-deductive problem into a deductive on. Holmes selects his question based on what he expects to deduce from its answer.
Holme’s Brain Attic
A strategic account of memory in inquiry is sketched in A Study In Scarlet, when Watson casually mentions that the Earth revolves around the Sun, only to find out that Holmes didn’t know that fact. Watson’s surprise intensifies when Holmes equally casually proclaims that he will do his best to forget everything about it, as he clarifies, “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.”
Holmes’ notion of a ‘brain attic memory’ is a fictional-world explanation for plot devices that would otherwise look like lucky guesses, but it is partially vindicated by current neurocognitive models. According to these models, human memory is a content-addressable memory that takes data as input
Conclusion-
The Holmesian canon offers more than a few examples of how a well-maintained “brain attic” supports Holmes’ investigations. He has also gathered very specific knowledge from special sciences, such as physical anthropology. This expert knowledge makes Holmes sensitive to details at a crime scene at Lauriston Garden that inspectors Lestrade and Gregson have overlooked or misinterpreted. Specifically, Holmes spots Trichinopoly cigar ashes on the floorboards and estimates the height of a murderer from an inscription (“Rache”) written on a wall. From this and other clues, he concludes that the murderer is a man, contrary to Lestrade and Gregson who suspect a woman (perhaps named Rachel). Ruling out a woman even suggests a motive and an ethnic origin (rache means revenge, in German), both later confirmed by Holmes’ investigation. Eventually, Holmes positively identifies the culprit in part thanks to Trichinopoly ashes in his hotel room. In A Study in Scarlet, Holmes approaches the crime scene without preconceptions.
