Sherlock Holmes: Chemist

The previous chapter discussed Sherlock Holmes as a scientifically oriented detective. He was also knowledgeable about science in general. Practically every story contains at least some mention of one of the sciences. Having explored how Holmes used science in his detective work, we now look at his interest in research and his love of things scientific. In The “Gloria Scott” (GLOR), one of just two of the sixty stories narrated by Holmes instead of Watson, he says, “during the first month of the long vacation. I went up to my London rooms where I spent seven weeks working out a few experiments in organic chemistry.” Watson tells us in The Three Students (3STU) that without his chemicals, Holmes was “an uncomfortable man.” So there are clear indications that Holmes was devoted to science and that his first love was chemistry (see figure 4.1).Commentators disagree about Holmes’s chemistry abilities. Most praise Holmes as a chemist (see Cooper 1976; Gillard 1976; Graham 1945; Holstein1954; Michell and Michell 1946). The most notable critic of Holmes’s chemistry is Isaac Asimov. His objections are discussed in section 4.4. Dr. Watson even disagrees with himself about Holmes the chemist! Before Watson even meets Holmes, at the very outset of A Study in Scarlet (STUD), he is told by Young Stamford that Holmes is “a first-class chemist.” Stamford then performs the historic role of introducing Holmes and Watson. It doesn’t take Watson long to realize that his new roommate is a unique mixture of knowledge and ignorance. When he learns in STUD that Holmes is unfamiliar with the Copernican theory and the composition of the solar system, Watson is stunned. . . . Holmes: you say we go round the sun. If we went round the moon it would not make a pennyworth of difference to me or to my work. Watson: But the Solar System. Holmes: What the deuce is it to me?. . . Holmes believes the brain has a limited capacity. Therefore useless facts like the nature of the solar system should be forgotten, lest they crowd out important things.