ABSTRACT
The model for the great detective Sherlock Holmes was not a detective at all; he was a forensic doctor. Dr. Joseph Bell (1837–1911) was a surgeon and a teacher of physicians and surgeons at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland. During his celebrated lectures, Dr. Bell would amaze his students with his keen observational and diagnostic skills. He would invite patients to his lectures, place them in front of his students, and make very dramatic pronouncements about the patients. One of those students recorded his memories of a portion of one of those lectures:
Well do I remember the gasping astonishment of an outpatient to whom he suddenly remarked, “I know you are a beadle and ring the bells on Sundays at a church in Northumberland somewhere near the Tweed.” “I’m all that,” said the man, “but how do you know? I never told you.” “Ah,” said Bell, when the outpatient had left bewildered, “of course, gentlemen, you all know about that as well as I did. What! You didn’t make that out! Did you not notice the Northumbrian burr in his speech, too soft for the south of Northumberland? One only finds it near the Tweed. And then his hands. Did you not notice the callosities on them caused by the ropes? Also, this is Saturday, and when I asked him if he could not come back on Monday, he said he must be getting home to-night. Then I knew he had to ring the bells tomorrow. Quite easy, gentleman, if you will only observe and put two and two together.” 1
