Tabes dorsalis: Not, at all, “Elementary my dear Watson!”

Let us begin this column with two slices of life of the celebrated Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859–1930). First, he studied medicine at Edinburgh University in Scotland where he defended, in April 1885, his MD thesis devoted to the vasomotor changes in tabes dorsalis (Doyle, 1885)—hence, the first part of our title. Second, he is, of course, chiefly remembered for his creation of the “subtle, hawk-eyed amateur detective Sherlock Holmes” (Drabble, 1996, p. 292). The first work featuring Sherlock Holmes and Dr. (John H.) Watson, AStudy in Scarlet, was published in 1887, ¹ followed by three novels and 56 short stories until 1927. Commonplaces are hard to get rid of: contrary to what some quite reliable references still convey (Demougin, 1992, p. 722), Sherlock Holmes never said word for word to his foil: “Elementary my dear Watson!”; this famous but apocryphal exclamation only appeared in later screen adaptations of Holmes’ adventures. Hence, the second part of our title: We would actually never describe the historical roots of the term “tabes dorsalis” as “Elementary my dear Watson!” Since our first “Neurowords Column” almost 20 years ago (Olry & Haines, 1997), this term caused us no end of trouble.