Medical and neurological references in the Sherlock Holmes stories

Type of article: ORIGINAL

AUTHOR

M.Balcells
Department of Neurology. Hospital Sagrat Cor.

ABSTRACT

Introduction. A study of the medical references in the stories about Sherlock Holmes, the literary character created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in the late 19th century.

Methods. Analysis of the author's biography and his complete works featuring Sherlock Holmes (56 short stories and 4 novels), focusing on medical references, especially those related to neurology. We compare these fragments with the medical texts of that time, and with current knowledge.

Results. The analysed stories othen feature characters displaying different neurological processes (cerebrovascular accidents, drug addiction, catalepsy, etc). A number of treatments are also mentioned.

Conclusions. We found resemblances between the symptoms presented in Conan Doyle's works and the Manual of Diseases of the Nervous System written by his contemporary W. R. Gowers.

KEYWORDS

Medicine in literature, Arthur Conan Doyle, Sherlock Holmes, history of neurology.

Neurosciences and History 2013;1(3):137-143