Nerve and Knowledge: Doctors, Medicine and the Sherlockian Canon

“When a doctor does go wrong he is the first of criminals. He has nerve and he has knowledge.”
—Sherlock Holmes in “The Speckled Band”

Medical issues and motifs heavily influence the Holmes stories. Arthur Conan Doyle began his career as a physician, and only later turned exclusively to writing. Holmes’ character is modeled after Dr. Joseph Bell, a famous diagnostician and teacher of Conan Doyle. And the stories are narrated by Dr. John Watson, an invalided army surgeon and sometime general practitioner.

The nineteen essays in this volume provide an in-depth analysis of all aspects of medicine in the Sherlock Holmes stories. The book takes us from the education of Conan Doyle and Watson, to the ailments that Holmes and Watson might have themselves suffered, to diagnoses that affected characters in the stories, and to public health and science in Holmes’ and Watson’ era. A distinguished roster of physicians, scientists, and Canonical experts has been assembled as contributors to this comprehensive volume.