by Bill Peschel
[Back] Yponomeutidae: The family name for the ermine moth, a species found in England.
[Back] Yttrium: A rare earth element named for Ytterby, Sweden, where it was discovered.
[Back] Kaffeekuchen: A number of puns and humorous words were inserted into this description. Riesendorf means giant village; Ochsenfuss could be a misspelling of ochsenfrosch or bullfrog; Zwiefelfeld means onion field; and a Kaffeekuchen is a cinnamon coffee cake. Grosskopf is a common name but also means “big head”—appropriate for a philosopher—and Kleinplatz means “small square.” Swabia, by the way, is simply a region in southwestern Germany.
[Back] Joseph Berkman: This is the actual name of the pawnshop owner, and his testimony reported in newspapers, about selling the suit case identified by a patch made to reinforce the handle was the first substantial clue in the case.
[Back] Blankety blank: Numbers omitted so that no one with that license plate would be accused inadvertently of murder.
[Back] Sole leather split: Grain leather that has not been sanded or buffed to remove imperfections, resulting in a high-quality, durable leather. Split leather is created when the top-grain of the rawhide has been removed. The interior layers can be split to create suede, patent, and split-sole leather.
[Back] The College Widow: A popular play from 1904 by playwright George Ade (1866-1944). The college widow was a woman who had a reputation for seducing willing students. Ade’s play was filmed twice and parodied in the Marx Brothers’ college comedy Horse Feathers.
[Back] Must be true: From The Sign of the Four: “When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.”
[Back] Eat short lobsters: Short meaning young lobsters. Catching them is illegal because it reduces the number of harvestable adult lobsters. When sold by street vendors and eateries, they would be served in newspapers.
[Back] Quicklime: Calcium oxide, a chemical compound that, when combined with water, creates heat. It was used to light theatres (where it was called limelight) before the invention of electrical lighting. However, it does not have the effect Holmes saw on the body. In his book The Body Farm, forensic anthropologist Dr. Bill Bass stated that “lime does reduce the odor of decomposition, but it also reduces the rate of decomposition. As a result, a lime-covered body may be less likely to get sniffed out, but it’s more likely to linger.”
[Back] Electric flash tube: Actually a flashlight, invented by Conrad Hubert (1855-1928), a Russian inventor and businessman who changed his name from Akiba Horowitz after arriving in America. He founded the American Electrical Novelty and Manufacturing Co. and sold a flashlight promoted as “Ever Ready.” In 1905, Hubert renamed his company American Ever Ready. Eventually, the Ever Ready name was applied to his batteries, now called Eveready, and the company is now called Energizer Holdings Inc.
[Back] Of the lighter elements: Conisation is a surgical procedure in which a cone-shape piece of tissue is cut from the cervix for diagnosis or treatment. The lighter elements could be a reference to Greek medicine which divided matter into four elements: earth, air, fire, and water. Fire and air were the lighter elements; water and earth the heavier elements.
[Back] Distal joints: The distal joints are the hinges that lie between the first and second finger bones, counting from the tip. Each bone, called a phalange, has a unique name. The fingertips are the distal phalange followed by the intermediate followed by the proximal. I have noticed also that my middle distal phalange has a distinct curve on the thumb side creating a saddle where my pen rests.
[Back] Diapason: A row of organ pipes that makes up one of the instrument’s three tonal families. The diapasons alone appear over the entire nine-octave range and is most responsible for the characteristic organ sound.
[Back] Lecoq: Émile Gaboriau (1832-1873) introduced amateur detective Monsieur Lecoq, a character based on the thief-turned-detective Eugène Francois Vidocq (1775-1857). Conan Doyle admitted using bits of Lecoq in creating Holmes.
[Back] Aid of a cigar: In the Sherlock Holmes play, the great detective is smoking a cigar when he enters the thugs’ lair to rescue Alice Faulkner. When they enter the room and surround him, he smashes the room’s sole lamp and rests his lit cigar on a window frame to distract his pursuers.
[Back] Evaporating dish: A piece of laboratory glassware used to evaporate liquid to produce either a concentrated form of the liquid or a solid.
[Back] Diopteric variation: Dioptric is the study of the refraction of light, particularly by lenses.
[Back] Water dirge from Ossian: A cycle of epic poems published by the Scottish poet James Macpherson (1736-1796). Although he claimed they were translations from the Scots Gaelic by the son of the legendary bard Finn McCool, the consensus opinion is that they had been written by Macpherson based on folk tales he had collected. Moriarty’s quotation has not been traced.
[Back] Stone Farm mystery: Not one of the canonical stories. One hopes the notes for this case are in Watson’s tin dispatch box held in the vaults of Cox and Co.
[Back] Stretcher: A wire frame used to help pants retain their shape.
[Back] For the present war: The war between the Russian Empire and the Empire of Japan began in February 1904 and ended in September 1905 after the Tsarist navy was destroyed at the battle of Tsushima. The war marked the entry of Japan into the modern world.
[Back] Kubelik’s recital: Jan Kubelik (1880-1940) was a Czech violinist. He had visited Britain in 1901 and 1902. Joseph Joachim (1831-1907) was a Hungarian violinist and collaborator of Johannes Brahms. A child prodigy, he debuted with the London Philharmonic at the age of 13. He is one of the earliest musicians whose performance was recorded. Legato is a musical technique in which the notes are played smoothly with no intervening silence.
[Back] Willamette water: The Willamette River is a major tributary of the Columbia River and passes through Portland in Oregon. Dysentery swept the city several times over the previous decade, resulting in debates about the water’s quality and whether the city should draw on other sources.
[Back] Local-option dope: In 1904, Oregon voters approved a local-option law allowing counties and cities to vote on banning liquor sales. Despite opposition from beer and whiskey manufacturers, the state’s voters banned all alcohol in 1914, five years before Prohibition.
[Back] Sellwood transfer: Sellwood was a small town about five miles upriver from Portland, Oregon, on the Willamette River. A streetcar line connected Sellwood to Golf Junction, home of the Waverly Golf Links. A transfer was a ticket that allowed you to ride on more than one streetcar during a trip.
[Back] Cowslip: A hardy perennial plant with an attractive small bloom.
[Back] Small circular tablet: A plaque that various official bodies in London attach to places where historic events occurred. The first plaque was installed in 1867 to mark Lord Byron’s birthplace in Cavendish Square. There are 880 plaques in London and at least 100 more have been removed or destroyed.
[Back] Oxford Eight: The eight-man rowing team representing Oxford University. From his position in the rear of the boat, facing the rowers, the coxswain is responsible for the safety of the crew, making tactical decisions, and steering the craft.
[Back] Unusual size: Most coxes are light. The ideal weight is 120 pounds for men and under 110 for women.
[Back] League of Lesbos: Some historians believe such a league actually existed on the Greek island of Lesbos between 190-167 B.C.
[Back] From the house: What a home! eh?—Frank Richardson
[Back] Get your knighthood: Mr. S. Holmes, in his excitement, evidently confused his old friend with Dr. William Watson, the poet.—Frank Richardson
[Back] Bicycle face: The popularity of bicycling gave rise to concerns over health problems caused by the new sport. As part of the New York Sun’s campaign against bicycle face in 1895, they quoted a physician who wrote of seeing cyclists who “wear an anxious look and an unwholesome pallor … watch them descend at an inn; a good many
exhibit anything but the exhilaration of healthy exercise. Some are more than pale; their faces have the peculiar gray hue which betokens nervous exhaustion.”
[Back] Grass or sod: While both types are separated from their husbands, a grass widow is apart from her living husband (because the grass was greener elsewhere), while the sod widow has buried her spouse.
[Back] Quai d’Orsay: Maidenhead is a town in Berkshire, upriver from London. The Quai d’Orsay is a street along the Seine in Paris.
[Back] Blue-riband army: The use of ribbons to promote a cause did not begin with the yellow ribbons that appeared during the Iran hostage crisis (1979-1981). In the 1880s, the blue ribbon movement was launched in the U.S. to promote banning alcohol. Temperance leader Richard Booth successfully took the idea to England.
[Back] Filou: A swindler or rogue.
[Back] Bock: A strong, dark lager beer from Germany.
[Back] Green-goods man: A scam in which circulars appeared offering near-perfect counterfeit currency. Sometimes, it’s claimed that they were printed on stolen engraving plates. Suckers are steered to a meeting where they’re shown a bag of genuine currency that is represented to be fake. As they haggle over the price, the bag is switched to one containing sawdust. In an alternative plan, they put the victim’s money in an envelope, write a code number on it, and give it back to the mark to hold until the exchange is made the next day. During the process, however, the envelope is switched to one containing fake money.
[Back] Le Coq: Émile Gaboriau (1832-1873) introduced amateur detective Monsieur Lecoq, a character based on the thief-turned-detective Eugène Francois Vidocq (1775-1857). Conan Doyle admitted using bits of Lecoq in creating Holmes.
[Back] Pinkerton’s: A detective agency founded by Allan Pinkerton (1819-1884).
[Back] Bumpers: A tankard or glass filled to the brim, especially called for when preparing to deliver a toast. From the definition of the adjective form meaning great or large, as in “a bumper crop.”
[Back] Woodcock-like: Woodcocks are wading birds mostly found in the Northern Hemisphere. Its long bill led to the belief that woodcocks fed by suction—they actually feed on worms—leading to the saying that a heavy drinker will soon become “fat as a woodcock by suction.”
[Back] Brahma key: Actually a Bramah key, named for English inventor and locksmith Joseph Bramah (1748-1814). His lock designs were renowned for being resistant to picking.
[Back] Ingurgitation: To drink or eat greedily.
[Back] Bloater: A cold-smoked herring or mackerel, lightly salted, named because they swell while being prepared.
[Back] Potations: The act of drinking, particularly alcohol.
[Back] Chaunchey’s: Surprisingly, this could be a reference to the American railroad official and U.S. Senator Chauncey Depew (1834-1928). His reputation as an excellent after-dinner speaker made a deep impression in England. Sir Henry William Lucy recounted in his memoirs a dinner at which Depew was called upon to respond to a toast. “The surprise was complete, not least for Chauncey Depew,” Lucy wrote. “But in a moment he was on his legs, and made response which for wit and appropriateness could not have been exceeded by an ordinary man with the advantage of a week’s preparation.”
[Back] Had no tale: Hall Caine (1853-1931) was one of the most popular authors of his era, and one of the first to be known as much for his self-promoting ways as for his works. He took great pride in his resemblance to Shakespeare, so much that it became the butt of jokes. Although born in Cheshire, he adopted the Isle of Man, located between Great Britain and Ireland, as his home. He involved himself in the island’s affairs, purchased a large house there, and set several novels there, including The Manxman (1894). Manx cats, best known for being tailless, were bred there.
[Back] Fed by jays: Bashful Dowie refers to John Alexander Dowie (1847-1907), the Scottish evangelist who founded the town of Zion, Ill., in 1901. He was known as an eloquent and powerful speaker. The prophet who was fed by ravens was Elijah. In I Kings, he was sent by the Lord to live by a brook: “And the ravens brought him bread and flesh in the morning, and bread and flesh in the evening; and he drank of the brook.” A jay in American slang is a foolish or gullible person, such as a jaywalker, so Sherlock is looking at Dowie much like we look at wealthy evangelicals today.
[Back] Hebetude: The state of being dull and lethargic.
[Back] Bétise: An ill-timed remark.
[Back] Achates: Achates was Aeneas’ close friend in the Aeneid. He followed the Trojan hero throughout his adventures and became, like Watson, a byword for manly loyalty.
[Back] Aristophanes’s Chorus: In the plays of Aristophanes (c.446-c.386 B.C.), the chorus looked on and spoke on behalf of the author about the story. The lone exception was in his play The Frogs, in which a chorus of frogs can only croak. This is the origin of the term “a Greek chorus.”
[Back] To Nelson: In Trafalgar Square flanked by fountains stands Nelson’s Column, atop which stands a statue of the admiral who died at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805.
[Back] Jaegers: Clothing consisting of animal fibers such as wool. Dr. Gustav Jaeger (1832-1917) theorized that humans would be healthier if they wore natural animal fibers next to the skin. This created a demand for wool-jersey long johns, which in England was fulfilled by “Dr. Jaeger’s Sanitary Woollen System Co. Ltd.,” founded in 1884 by businessman Lewis Tomalin, who acquired the rights from the doctor. Jaeger is still in business and known for its classic “twinset and pearls” image and natural-fiber clothing.
[Back] Missing Word Competitions: A fad puzzle started by Pearson’s Weekly in 1891 that swept the country and ended in a lawsuit. The magazine would print a paragraph with the last word missing, and invited readers to send in a shilling and guess what the word was. The pot was divided among the winners. The contest boosted the magazine’s circulation from 200,000 a week to 1.25 million. One week, each winner received £70, nearly a half-year’s wages for a workingman. The Treasury department considered the contest to be a lottery and sued one of 200 newspapers that had launched similar contests. When the court ruled in the government’s favor, Treasury officials stopped Pearson’s contest and impounded £40,000 sent in. Because the magazine had destroyed all the entries, except those of the winners, it was permitted to share the proceeds among them.
[Back] Tibia: The larger of two bones below the knee that connects it to the ankle bone.
[Back] Viola tout: That’s all.
[Back] Dowager duchess: A duchess who possesses a dower, or life interest, in the late duke’s property. Traditionally, when the duke dies, the widow is allowed to stay on the estate, even though she officially has no say in the running of the household.
[Back] Qua burglar: Qua is from the Latin for “in the capacity of” or “as being.” It is used when you wish to discuss the subject in only one particular aspect. You could say, for example, “this novel is not particularly good qua novel, but it is a powerful social document.”
[Back] Great Jehu’s Ghost: Jehu was king of ancient Israel from about 841 to 814 B.C. It is not a common phrase at all, unlike “Great Caesar’s Ghost.”
[Back] Three Strikes and Out: Charles Dana Gibson’s “Two Strikes and the Bases Full” and “Fanned Out” in Collier’s Weekly the year before showed baseball fans anticipating an important at-bat, followed by their disappointment at the player striking out.
[Back] Taking the place: It wasn’t until numbers were added to the players’ uniforms, a practice which began with the Cleveland Indians in 1916, that this kind of shenanigans could be stopped.
[Back] Pons asinorum: Latin for “bridge of donkeys,” or asses depending on your attitude. It is metaphor applied to a problem that tests the reader’s education and thinking skills. The phrase originated as part of a geometry proof called the isosceles triangle theorem. An isosceles triangle has at least two equal sides—if it had three it would also be called an equilateral triangle—so this phrase is referring to Holmes’ habit of steepling his fing
ertips together underneath his chin.
[Back] Small hand press: A curious deduction, considering the expense and effort of using movable type to assemble a record, then print it by hand.
[Back] ‘H1174’ is the: Prefatory matter refers to any material published before the first chapter, such as an introduction or preface. Quarto refers to a sheet of paper that was printed and folded twice to create eight pages. It also describes a book whose pages are about 12 inches tall and 9½ inches wide. H1174 is the book’s classification number, with the H signifying, depending on the system used, either history or social sciences.
[Back] Yedo: A former Romanized name (that is, a translation of the Japanese Kanji characters) of Tokyo, where the Tokugawa shogunate ruled Japan from 1603 to 1868. This was followed by the Meiji Restoration under Emperor Meiji (1852-1912) which saw the nation transition from a feudal state to an industrial and imperial power.
