HANDOUT#6
The
Hound of the Baskervilles
Chapter
1
Mr.
Sherlock Holmes
Mr. Sherlock Holmes, who was usually very
late in the
mornings, save upon those not
infrequent occasions when he was
up all night, was seated at the breakfast
table. I stood upon the
hearth-rug and picked up
the stick which our visitor had left
behind him the night before. It
was a fine, thick piece of wood,
bulbous-headed, of the sort
which is known as a "
yer."
Just under the head was a broad silver band nearly an inch
across. "To James Mortimer,
M.R.C.S., from his friends of the
C.C.H.,"
was engraved upon it, with the date "1884." It was
just such a stick as the
old-fashioned family practitioner used to
carry -- dignified, solid, and
reassuring.
"Well, Watson, what do you make of
it?"
Holmes was sitting with his back to me, and I
had given him
no sign of my occupation.
"How did you know what I was doing? I
believe you have
eyes in the back of your
head."
"I have, at least, a well-polished,
silver-plated coffee-pot in
front of me," said he.
"But, tell me, Watson, what do you make
of our visitor's stick? Since we have been
so unfortunate as to
miss him and have no notion of
his errand, this accidental
souvenir becomes of importance.
Let me hear you reconstruct
the man by an examination of it."
"I think," said I, following as far
as I could the methods of
my companion, "that Dr. Mortimer is a
successful, elderly
medical man, well-esteemed since
those who know him give
him this mark of their appreciation."
"Good!" said Holmes.
"Excellent!"
"I think also that the probability is in
favour of his being a
country practitioner who does a
great deal of his visiting on
foot."
"Why so?"
"Because this stick,
though originally a very handsome one
has been so knocked about that I can hardly
imagine a town
practitioner carrying it.
The thick-iron ferrule is worn down, so it
is evident that he has done a great amount
of walking with it."
"Perfectly
sound!" said Holmes.
"And then again, there is the 'friends
of the C.C.H.' I should
guess that to be the Something
Hunt, the local hunt to whose
members he has possibly given
some surgical assistance, and
which has made him a small
presentation in return."
"Really, Watson, you excel
yourself," said Holmes, pushing
back his chair and lighting a
cigarette. "I am bound to say that
in all the accounts which you have been so
good as to give of my
own small achievements you have habitually
underrated your
own abilities. It may be that you are not
yourself luminous, but
you are a conductor of light. Some people
without possessing
genius have a remarkable power
of stimulating it. I confess, my
dear fellow, that I am very
much in your debt."
He had never said as much before, and I must
admit that his
words gave me keen pleasure,
for I had often been piqued by his
indifference to my
admiration and to the attempts which I had
made to give publicity to his
methods. I was proud, too, to think
that I had so far mastered his
system as to apply it in a way
which earned his approval. He
now took the stick from my hands
and examined it for a few minutes with his
naked eyes. Then
with an expression of interest
he laid down his cigarette, and
carrying the cane to the window,
he looked over it again with a
convex lens.
"Interesting, though elementary,"
said he as he returned to
his favourite
corner of the settee. "There are certainly one or
two indications upon the stick. It gives us
the basis for several
deductions."
"Has anything escaped me?" I asked
with some self-
importance. "I
trust that there is nothing of consequence which I
have overlooked?"
"I am afraid, my dear Watson, that most
of your conclusions
were erroneous. When I said
that you stimulated me I meant, to
be frank, that in noting your fallacies I
was occasionally guided
towards the truth. Not that you
are entirely wrong in this in-
stance. The man is certainly a
country practitioner. And he walks
a good deal."
"Then I was right."
"To that extent."
"But that was all."
"No, no, my dear Watson, not all -- by
no means all. I would
suggest, for example, that a
presentation to a doctor is more
likely to come from a hospital
than from a hunt, and that when
the initials 'C.C.' are placed before that
hospital the words
'
"You may be right."
"The probability lies in that direction.
And if we take this as a
working hypothesis we have a
fresh basis from which to start our
construction of this
unknown visitor."
"Well, then, supposing that 'C.C.H.'
does stand for 'Charing
Cross
Hospital,' what further inferences may we draw?"
"Do none suggest themselves? You know my
methods. Apply
them!"
"I can only think of the obvious
conclusion that the man has
practised
in town before going to the country."
"I think that we might venture a little
farther than this. Look
at it in this light. On what occasion
would it be most probable
that such a presentation would
be made? When would his friends
unite to give him a pledge of
their good will? Obviously at the
moment when Dr. Mortimer
withdrew from the service of the
hospital in order to start in
practice for himself. We know there
has been a presentation. We believe there
has been a change
from a town hospital to a
country practice. Is it, then, stretching
our inference too far to say that the
presentation was on the
occasion of the change?"
"It certainly seems probable."
"Now, you will observe that he could not
have been on the
staff of ohe
hospital, since only a man well-established in a
would not drift into the
country. What was he, then? If he was in
the hospital and yet not on the staff he
could only have been a
house-surpeon
or a house-physician -- little more than a senior
student. And he left five years
ago -- the date is on the stick. So
your grave, middle-aged family
practitioner vanishes into thin
air, my dear Watson, and there emerges a
young fellow under
thirty, amiable, unambitious, absent-minded, and the possessor
of a favourite
dog, which I should describe roughly as being
larger than a terrier and
smaller than a mastiff."
I laughed incredulously as Sherlock Holmes
leaned back in his
settee and blew little wavering
rings of smoke up to the ceiling.
"As to the latter part, I have no means
of checking you," said
I,
"but at least it is not difficult to find out a few particulars
about the man's age and
professional career." From my small
medical shelf I took down the
Medical Directory and turned up
the name. There were several Mortimers, but only one who
could be our visitor. I read
his record aloud.
"Mortimer, James, M.R.C.S., 1882, Grimpen,
Cross Hospital. Winner of the
tive
Pathology, with essay entitled 'Is Disease a Reversion?'
Corresponding member of the Swedish Pathological
Soci-
ety.
Author of 'Some Freaks of Atavism' (Lancet 1882).
'Do We Progress?' (Journal
of Psychology, March, 1883).
Medical Officer for the parishes of Grimpen, Thorsley, and
High Barrow."
"No mention of that local hunt, Watson,"
said Holmes with a
mischievous smile,
"but a country doctor, as you very astutely
observed. I think that I am fairly
justified in my inferences. As
to the adjectives, I said, if I remember
right, amiable, unambi-
tious,
and absent-minded. It is my experience that it is only an
amiable man in this world who
receives testimonials, only an
unambitious
one who abandons a
and only an absent-minded one who leaves
his stick and not his
visiting-card after waiting
an hour in your room."
"And the dog?"
"Has been in the habit of carrying this
stick behind his
master. Being a heavy stick the
dog has held it tightly by the
middle, and the marks of his
teeth are very plainly visible. The
dog's jaw, as shown in the
space between these marks, is too
broad in my opinion for a
terrier and not broad enough for a
mastiff. It may have been -- yes,
by Jove, it is a curly-haired
spaniel."
He had risen and paced the room as he spoke.
Now he halted
in the recess of the window. There was
such a ring of conviction
in his voice that I glanced up in
surprise.
"My dear fellow, how can you possibly be
so sure of that?"
"For the very simple reason that I see
the dog himself on our
very door-step, and there is
the ring of its owner. Don't move, I
beg you, Watson. He is a professional
brother of yours, and your
presence may be of assistance to
me. Now is the dramatic
moment of fate, Watson, when you
hear a step upon the stair
which is walking into your
life, and you know not whether for
good or ill. What does Dr.
James Mortimer, the man of science,
ask of Sherlock Holmes, the specialist in
crime? Come in!"
The appearance of our visitor was a surprise
to me, since I
had expected a typical country
practitioner. He was a very tall,
thin man, with a long nose
like a beak, which jutted out between
two keen, gray eyes, set closely together
and sparkling brightly
from behind a pair of
gold-rimmed glasses. He was clad in a
professional but rather
slovenly fashion, for his frock-coat was
dingy and his trousers frayed.
Though young, his long back was
already bowed, and he walked with
a forward thrust of his head
and a general air of peering benevolence.
As he entered his eyes
fell upon the stick in
Holmes's hand, and he ran towards it with
an exclamation of joy. "I am so very
glad," said he. "I was not
sure whether I had left it
here or in the Shipping Office. I would
not lose that stick for the world."
"A presentation, I see," said
Holmes.
"Yes, sir."
"From
"From one or two friends there on the
occasion of my
marriage."
"Dear, dear, that's bad!" said
Holmes, shaking his head.
Dr. Mortimer blinked through his glasses in
mild astonishment.
"Why was it bad?"
"Only that you have disarranged our
little deductions. Your
marriage, you say?"
"Yes, sir. I
married, and so left the hospital, and with it all
hopes of a consulting practice.
It was necessary to make a home
of my own."
"Come, come, we are not so far wrong,
after all," said
Holmes.
"And now, Dr. James Mortimer --"
"Mister, sir, Mister
-- a humble M.R.C.S."
"And a man of precise mind,
evidently."
"A dabbler in science, Mr. Holmes, a
picker up of shells on
the shores of the great unknown ocean. I
presume that it is Mr.
Sherlock
Holmes whom I am addressing and not --"
"No, this is my friend Dr. Watson."
"Glad to meet you, sir. I have heard
your name mentioned in
connection with that of
your friend. You interest me very much,
Mr.
Holmes. I had hardly expected so dolichocephalic a
skull or
such well-marked supra-orbital
development. Would you have
any objection to my running my finger along
your parietal
fissure? A cast of your skull,
sir, until the original is available,
would be an ornament to any
anthropological museum. It is not
my intention to be fulsome, but I confess
that I covet your
skull."
Sherlock Holmes waved our strange visitor
into a chair. "You
are an enthusiast in your line of thought,
I perceive, sir, as I am
in mine," said he. "I observe
from your forefinger that you
make your own cigarettes. Have
no hesitation in lighting one."
The man drew out paper and tobacco and
twirled the one up in
the other with surprising dexterity. He had
long, quivering fin-
gers
as agile and restless as the antennae of an insect.
Holmes was silent, but his little darting
glances showed me
the interest which he took in our curious
companion.
"I presume, sir," said he at last,
"that it was not merely for
the purpose of examining my skull that you
have done me the
honour
to call here last night and again to-day?"
"No, sir, no; though I am happy to have
had the opportunity
of doing that as well. I came to you, Mr.
Holmes, because I
recognized that I am
myself an unpractical man and because I am
suddenly confronted with a most
serious and extraordinary prob-
lem.
Recognizing, as I do, that you are the second highest expert
in
"Indeed, sir! May I inquire who has the honour to be the
first?" asked Holmes with
some asperity.
"To the man of precisely scientific mind
the work of Mon-
sieur
Bertillon must always appeal strongly."
"Then had you not better consult
him?"
"I said, sir, to the precisely
scientific mind. But as a practical
man of affairs it is acknowledged that you
stand alone. I trust,
sir, that I have not inadvertently --"
"Just a little," said Holmes.
"I think, Dr. Mortimer, you
would do wisely if without more
ado you would kindly tell me
plainly what the exact nature of
the problem is in which you
demand my assistance."
HANDOUT
#7
Name__________
Date___________
Question Sheet
for The Hound of the Baskersville
1)
1) Name some of the characteristics of Sherlock Holmes that
might suggest that he has Asperger’s syndrome.
2)
2) Take the following quote and relate it to The Curious
Incident of the Dog in the Night-time:
“Some people without possessing genius have a remarkable power of
stimulating it.”
3)
3) Christopher often notices things that other people take for
granted. In The Hound of the Baskersville, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle makes a joke of this
when Watson asks Holmes how he knew Mortimer had a curly-haired spaniel and the
dog is standing at the door. Give an
example of something that Christopher notices that others may not.
4)
4) Based on the following sentence, what conclusion can you
draw about the similarity between Sherlock Holmes and Christopher?: “Now is the
dramatic moment of fate, Watson, when you hear a step upon the stair which is
walking into your life, and you know not whether for good or ill.”
5)
5) Remark on the amount of detail Sherlock Holmes notices when
first meeting Mortimer. Compare this to
the detail Christopher notices when meeting a person.