The Science of Sherlock Holmes: From Baskerville Hall to the Valley of Fear, the Real Forensics Behind the Great Detective's Greatest Cases

by E. J. Wagner

  Aqua Tofana. Literally, Tofana’s water; a poisonous mixture containing arsenic reportedly concocted and sold in Rome and Naples by the murderous seventeenth-century entrepreneur Teofania di Adamo.

  autopsy. Medical examination of a dead human body; from the Greek meaning “to see for one’s self.”

  bascule. The wooden seesaw plank of the guillotine on which the convicted was strapped for execution.

  bezoar stone. Stones formed in the intestinal organs of animals such as goats; believed in former times to be an antidote to poison.

  body snatchers. Grave robbers; an illicit source of human anatomical specimens.

  bordereau. A form, docket, list, or covering memorandum; commonly used to refer to the list of French military documents found in the German embassy in Paris that Dreyfus was accused of writing.

  cadaveric spasm. Instant rigor at the moment of death. It is rarely encountered.

  carboy. A large bottle of green glass enclosed in basketwork or boxed for protection, used especially for carrying corrosive liquids.

  chirography. Penmanship, or the art of handwriting.

  coroner. From “crowner,” originally a representative of the Crown who was responsible for conducting inquests. In some jurisdictions, the term is used interchangebly with medical examiner; in others, a coroner is simply a layman with no medical training who is reponsible for engaging a forensic expert to consult when needed.

  corpus delicti. The body of evidence that establishes that the crime has taken place.

  craniology. Old term for phrenology.

  dactyloscopy. The science of fingerprints.

  215 declic. The blade release lever on the guillotine.

  exudates. Substances such as liquids or odors released from a gland, pore,

  membrane, or cut.

  forensic. Of the court, relating to legal proceedings; sometimes used as

  an abbreviation for “forensic science” or to refer to the application of

  science to decide questions arising from legal proceedings. forensic science. Any academic science applied to legal proceedings. graphology. The study of handwriting for the purpose of judging psychological attributes of an individual.

  guaiacum. A West Indian tree whose resin was used in the old guaiacum

  test for the presence of blood.

  hemoglobin. A component of animal blood cells that carries oxygen and

  gives red blood cells their characteristic color.

  homicide. The killing of one human being by another human being. hyoscine. An alkaloid sedative.

  infarct. Alternatively, infarction. Recently dead tissue due to sudden loss

  of blood supply, as from a heart attack.

  Jemmy. A short crowbar used by burglars to gain entry, today called a

  jimmy in the United States.

  lividity. Gray-blue discoloration caused by the settling of blood after

  death.

  livor mortis. The discoloration of death, which occurs as the circulation

  ceases.

  lunette. Wooden collar on the guillotine in which the neck of the convicted was held for execution.

  luz bone. The part of the body believed in ancient times to be that from

  which the entire body of a dead individual would be resurrected at the

  day of judgment.

  medical jurisprudence. The original term for “forensic medicine.” It is

  still used on occasion.

  not proven. A verdict available to juries in Scotland in addition to guilty

  or innocent, resulting in acquittal.

  perimortem. At or around the time of death.

  phrenology. A pseudoscience that attempted to determine intellectual

  traits and character by observation of the shape of the skull. portrait parlé. Literally, “speaking picture.” The system devised by

  Alphonse Bertillon in 1882 to identify individuals with police records. postmortem. Medical examination of a dead person; from the Latin

  meaning “after death.”

  precipitin. Serum produced in blood in a defensive reaction to the injection of blood from another species.

  prussic acid. Hydrocyanic acid, a solution of hydrogen cyanide and

  water.

  psychopomp. A spiritual presence whose purpose is to warn of approaching disaster or to accompany a human to the afterworld. tannin. Tannic acid, often produced by the decomposition of plant matter, especially peat moss. Tannin tans skin and leather and acts as a

  preservative.

  vomitus. Contents of the stomach ejected through the mouth.

  Bibliography

  Published Materials

  Adams, Norman. Dead and Buried? The Horrible History of Bodysnatching. New York: Bell Publishing Company, 1972.

  Ashton-Wolfe, H. The Forgotten Clue: Stories of the Parisian Sûreté with an Account of Its Methods. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1930.

  Atholl, Justin. Shadow of the Gallows. London: John Long, 1954.

  Bailey, James A. “Iodine Fuming Fingerprints from Antiquity.” Minutiæ (Lightning Powder Company, Jacksonville, FL), issue number 76 (Summer 2003).

  Barber, Paul. Vampires, Burial, and Death: Folklore and Reality. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990.

  Baring-Gould, William S. Sherlock Holmes of Baker Street: A Life of the World’s First Consulting Detective. New York: Bramhall House, 1962.

  Barker, Richard, ed. The Fatal Caress: And Other Accounts of English Murders from 1551 to 1888. New York: Duell, Sloan and Pearce, 1947.

  Belin, Jean. Secrets of the Sûreté: The Memoirs of Commissioner Jean Belin. New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1950.

  Bell, John. Engravings Explaining the Anatomy of the Bones, Muscles, and Joints. London: Bell and Bradfute, and T. Duncan; and J. Johnson, and G.G.G. & J. Robinsons, 1794.

  Bemis, George. Report of the Case of John W. Webster: Indicted for the Murder of George Parkman. Boston: Charles C. Little and James Brown, 1850.

  Beneke, Mark. “A Brief History of Forensic Entomology.” Forensic Science International 120 (2001): 2–14.

  Birkenhead [Frederick Winston Smith], Earl of. More Famous Trials. Garden City, NY: Sun Dial Press, 1937.

  Bishop, George. Executions: The Legal Ways of Death. Los Angeles: Sherbourne Press, 1965.

  218

  Blundell, R. H., and G. Haswell Wilson, eds. Trial of Buck Ruxton. London: William Hodge & Company, 1950.

  Bolitho, William. Murder for Profit. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1926.

  Bond, Raymond T., ed. Handbook for Poisoners: A Collection of Famous Poison Stories; Selected, with an Introduction on Poisons. New York: Rinehart & Co., 1951.

  Boos, William F. The Poison Trail. Boston: Hale, Cushman & Flint, 1939.

  Booth, Martin. The Doctor and the Detective: A Biography of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. New York: Thomas Dunn Books/St. Martin’s Minotaur, 2000.

  Bradley, Howard A., and James A. Winans. Daniel Webster and the Salem Murder. Columbia, MO: Artcraft Press, 1956.

  Bridges, Yseult. Poison and Adelaide Bartlett: The Pimlico Poisoning Case. London: Hutchinson of London, 1962.

  Brophy, John. The Meaning of Murder. London: Ronald Whiting & Wheaton, 1966.

  Browne, Douglas G. The Rise of Scotland Yard: A History. New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, n.d., ca. 1955.

  Browne, Douglas G., and E. V. Tullet. Bernard Spilsbury: His Life and Cases. London: George G. Harrap & Co., 1951.

  Brussel, James A. Casebook of a Crime Psychiatrist. New York: Bernard Geis Associates, 1968.

  Buchan, William. Domestic Medicine; Advice to Mothers: Treatise on the Prevention and Cure of Diseases by Regimen and Simple Medicines. Boston: Joseph Bumstead, 1811.

  [Bulfinch, Thomas]. Bulfinch’s Mythology: The Age of Fable, The Age of Chivalry, The Legends of Charlemagne. London: Hamlyn Publishing Group, 1969.

  Burroughs Wellcome & Co. Wellcome’s Excerpta Therapeutica, U.S.A. edition. London: Burroughs Wellcome & Co., 1916.

/>   Burton, John Hill. Narratives from Criminal Trials in Scotland, vol. 2. London: Chapman and Hall, 1852.

  Byrnes, Thomas. 1886 Professional Criminals of America. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1969.

  Caesar, Gene. Incredible Detective: The Biography of William J. Burns. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1968.

  Camps, Francis E. The Investigation of Murder. With Richard Barber. London: Michael Joseph, 1966.

  Carey, Arthur A. Memoirs of a Murder Man. With Howard McLellan. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, Doran, and Company, 1930.

  Carr, John Dickson. The Life of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Harper & Brothers, New York, 1949. Reprint, New York: Vintage Books, 1975.

  Cassity, John Holland. The Quality of Murder: A Psychiatric and Legal Evaluation of Motives and Responsibilities Involved in the Plea of Insanity as Revealed in Outstanding Murder Cases of This Century. New York: Julian Press, 1958.

  Chapman, Henry C. A Manual of Medical Jurisprudence and Toxicology. Philadelphia: W. B. Saunders, 1893.

  Ciba Foundation. The Poisoned Patient: The Role of the Laboratory. Amsterdam: Associated Scientific Publishers/Elsevier, 1974.

  Costello, A. E. Our Police Protectors: History of the New York Police from the Earliest Period to the Present Time, 2nd ed. New York: A. E. Costello, 1885.

  Cullen, Tom A. When London Walked in Terror. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1965.

  Dale-Green, Patricia. Lore of the Dog. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1967.

  De La Torre, Lillian, ed. Villainy Detected: Britain in 1660 to 1800. New York: D. Appleton-Century Company, 1947.

  De Quincey, Thomas. Miscellaneous Essays. Boston: Ticknor, Reed, and Fields, 1851.

  Devlin, Patrick. The Criminal Prosecution in England. London: Oxford University Press, 1960.

  de Vries, Leonard. ’Orrible Murder: An Anthology of Victorian Crime and Passion Compiled from the Illustrated Police News. With Ilonka Van Amstel. New York: Taplinger Publishing Company, 1971.

  Dewberry, Elliot B. Food Poisoning: Its Nature, History and Causation: Measures for Its Prevention and Control. London: Leonard Hill, 1943.

  Dilnot, George, ed. The Trial of Professor John White Webster. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1928.

  Doyle, Arthur Conan. The Annotated Sherlock Holmes: The Four Novels and Fifty-six Short Stories Complete. Edited by William S. Baring-Gould. New York: Wings Books, 1992.

  ———. The Complete Sherlock Holmes: The A. Conan Doyle Memorial Edition, 2 vols. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, Doran, and Company, 1930.

  ———. The New Annotated Sherlock Holmes. Edited, with a foreword and notes, by Leslie S. Klinger. Additional research by Patricia J. Chui; introduction by John le Carré. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2005.

  Dreyfus, Alfred. Five Years of My Life: The Diary of Captain Alfred Dreyfus. New York: Peebles Press, 1977.

  Duff, Charles. A New Handbook on Hanging: Being a Short Introduction to the Fine Art of Execution. Chicago: Henry Regnery Company, 1953.

  Duke, Thomas S. Celebrated Criminal Cases of America. San Francisco:

  James H. Barry Company, 1910. Reprinted with corrections and index added. Montclair, NJ: Patterson Smith Publishing Company, 1991. Dumas, Alexandre. Celebrated Crimes, 8 vols. Translated from the French

  by I. G. Burnham. Philadelphia: George Barry, 1895.

  Edwards, Samuel. The Vidocq Dossier: The Story of the World’s First Detective. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1977.

  Esterow, Milton. The Art Stealers. New York: Macmillan Publishing Company, 1973.

  Evans-Pritchard, E. E. Witchcraft, Oracles, and Magic among the Azande. Abridged with an introduction by Eva Gillies. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1983.

  Fabian, Robert. Fabian of the Yard: An Intimate Record by Ex-Superintendent Robert Fabian, 5th ed. London: Naldrett Press, 1954.

  ———. London After Dark: An Intimate Record of Night Life in London and a Selection of Crime Stories from the Case Book of Ex-Superintendent Robert Fabian. New York: British Book Centre, 1954.

  Fatteh, Abdullah. Handbook of Forensic Pathology. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Company, 1973.

  Faulds, Henry. “On the Skinfurrows of the Hand.” Nature 22 (October 28, 1880): 605. Available at http://www.galton.org/fingerprints/ faulds-1880-nature-furrows.pdf and http://www.eneate.freeserve.co .uk/page3.html.

  Felstead, S. Theodore. Shades of Scotland Yard: Stories Grave and Gay of the World’s Greatest Detective Force. New York: Roy Publishers, n.d., ca. 1951.

  Finger, Charles J. Historic Crimes and Criminals. Girard, KS: HaldemanJulius Company, 1922.

  Franklin, Charles. They Walked a Crooked Mile: An Account of the Greatest Scandals, Swindlers, and Outrages of All Time. New York: Hart Publishing Company, 1969.

  Frazer, James George. The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion. Abridged. New York: Macmillan Company, 1941.

  Furman, Guido, ed. Medical Register of the City of New York for 1865: For the Year Commencing June 1, 1865. New York: New York MedicoHistorical Society, 1866.

  Gaute, J. H. H., and Robin Odell. The Murderers’ Who’s Who: Outstanding International Cases from the Literature of Murder in the Last 150 Years. Montreal: Optimum Publishing Company, 1979.

  Glaister, John. Medical Jurisprudence and Toxicology, 9th ed. Edinburgh: E. and S. Livingstone, 1950.

  ———. The Power of Poison. London: Christopher Johnson Publishers, Glaister, John, and James Couper Brash. MedicoLegal Aspects of the Ruxton Case. Baltimore, MD: William Wood & Company, 1937.

  Goddard, Henry. Memoirs of a Bow Street Runner. London: Museum Press Limited, 1956.

  Gonzales, Thomas A., Morgan Vance, and Milton Helpern. Legal Medicine and Toxicology. New York: D. Appleton-Century Company, 1937.

  Gonzalez-Crussi, F. Notes of an Anatomist. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1985.

  Good, John Mason. The Study of Medicine, 6th American ed., vol. 1. New York: Harper and Brothers, 1836.

  Goodman, Jonathan. The Slaying of Joseph Bowne Elwell. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1988.

  Gordon, Richard. The Alarming History of Medicine. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1994.

  ———. Great Medical Disasters. New York: Dorset Press, 1986.

  Gribble, Leonard. Great Manhunters of the Yard. New York: Roy Publishers, 1966.

  Gross, Hans. Criminal Investigation: A Practical Textbook for Magistrates, Police Officers and Lawyers; Adapted from System Der Kriminalistik of Dr. Hans Gross, 4th ed. Translated from the German and edited by John Adam and J. Collyer Adam. Edited by Ronald Martin Howe. London: Sweet & Maxwell, 1949.

  Guiley, Rosemary Ellen. Vampires Among Us. New York: Pocket Books, 1991.

  Guttmacher, Manfred S. The Mind of the Murderer. New York: Grove Press, 1962.

  Haggard, Howard W. Devils, Drugs, and Doctors: The Story of the Science of Healing from Medicine-Man to Doctor. New York: Harper and Row, 1929.

  Haining, Peter, ed. The Gentlewomen of Evil: An Anthology of Rare Supernatural Stories from the Pens of Victorian Ladies. New York: Taplinger Publishing Company, 1967.

  Halasz, Nicholas. Captain Dreyfus: The Story of a Mass Hysteria. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1955.

  Hall, Angus, ed. The Crime Busters: The FBI, Scotland Yard, Interpol—The Story of Criminal Detection. London: Treasure Press, 1984.

  Hall, John, ed. Trial of Adelaide Bartlett. New York: The John Day Company, 1927.

  Hamm, Ernest D. “Track Identification: An Historical Overview.” International Symposium on the Forensic Aspects of Footwear and Tire Impression Evidence. June 27, 1994. Quantico, VA: FBI Academy,

  Hardwick, Michael, and Mollie Hardwick. The Man Who Was Sherlock Holmes. Garden City, NY: Doubleday & Company, 1964.

  Harrison, Shirley, and Michael Barrett. Diary of Jack the Ripper. New York: Hyperion, 1993.

  Hartman, Mary S. Victorian Murderesses: A True History of 13 Respectable French and English Women Accused of Unspeakable Crimes. New York: Schocken Books, 1976.

  Hel
man, Cecil. The Body of Frankenstein’s Monster: Essays in Myth and Medicine. New York: W. W. Norton Company, 1992.

  Helpern, Milton. Autopsy: The Memoirs of Milton Helpern, the World’s Greatest Medical Detective. With Bernard Knight. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1977.

  Henry, E. R. Classification and Uses of Fingerprints. London: His Majesty’s Stationery Office, 1913.

  Heppenstall, Rayner. French Crime in the Romantic Age. London: Hamish Hamilton, 1970.

  ———. Reflections on the Newgate Calendar. London: W. H. Allen, 1975.

  Hertzler, Arthur E. The Horse and Buggy Doctor. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1938.

  Higham, Charles. The Adventures of Conan Doyle: The Life of the Creator of Sherlock Holmes. New York: W. W. Norton, 1976.

  Hodge, Harry, and James H. Hodge, eds. Famous Trials: From Murder to Treason—The Sensational Courtroom Dramas Which Make Up Legal History. Selected and introduced by John Mortimer. Abridged. Harmondsworth, Middlesex, England: Penguin Books, 1984.

  Hoeling, Mary. The Real Sherlock Holmes: Arthur Conan Doyle. New York: Julian Messner, 1965.

  Holmes, Oliver Wendell. Medical Essays, 1842–1882, Riverside ed., vol. 9. New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1911.

  Holmes, Paul. The Trials of Dr. Coppolino. New York: The New American Library, 1968.

  Holton, Gerald. Introduction to Concepts and Theories in Physical Sciences. Cambridge, MA: Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, 1955.

  Honeycombe, Gordon. The Murders of the Black Museum, 1870–1970. London: Hutchinson & Company, 1982.

  Hoover, John Edgar. The Identification Facilities of the FBI. Washington, DC: Federal Bureau of Investigation, U.S. Department of Justice, 1941.

  Houde, John. Crime Lab: A Guide for Nonscientists. Ventura, CA: Calico Press, 1999.

  Houts, Marshall. Where Death Delights: The Story of Dr. Milton Helpern and Forensic Medicine. New York: Coward-McCann, 1967.

  Hunt, Peter. The Madeline Smith Affair. London: Carroll & Nicholson, 1950.

  Hussey, Robert F. Murderer Scot-Free: A Solution to the Wallace Puzzle, 1st American ed. South Brunswick, NJ: Great Albion Books, 1972.

  Hynd, Alan. Murder Mayhem and Mystery: An Album of American Crime. New York: A. S. Barnes and Company, 1958.

  Infamous Murders. London: Verdict Press, 1975. Reprint, London: Treasure Press, 1985.