SHERLOCK HOLMES, THE CHEMIST
“A formidable array of bottles and test tubes, with the pungent cleanly smell of hydrochloric acid, told me that he had spent his day in the chemical work which was so dear to him.”
The Red-Haired League
Mention is made from time to time in the tales of certain chemical problems which occupy the attention of the great detective. Moreover, the chemical desk and chemical paraphernalia in the rooms at 221B Baker Street are referred to frequently. Indeed, the reader would be disappointed if they were not mentioned, for he has come to accept them as he has the Persian slipper and the gasogene. Since we are living in an age of chemistry, it is pertinent and timely to review Sherlock Holmes’ interest in this important field. It is, moreover, of certain intellectual and historical interest to examine—even though rather superficially—the status of any phase of chemistry during the last quarter of the past century, or, for that matter, of any period. At the time of which we write, biological chemistry was still in its infancy, but organic chemistry was already an important subject.
In A Study in Scarlet, it will be remembered that when Stamford took Dr. Watson to the laboratory of the medical school to meet Sherlock Holmes, they found him working on a chemical problem. So enthusiastic was Holmes that, even before Stamford had had an opportunity to present Watson, Holmes sprang to his feet and cried: “I’ve found it! I’ve found it!... I have found a reagent which is precipitated by hemoglobin, and by nothing else.” He then acknowledged the introduction, and made the famous remark, “You have been in Afghanistan, I perceive.”
Holmes proceeded next to give a demonstration of his new test:
“Now, I add this small quantity of blood to a litre of water. You perceive that the resulting mixture has the appearance of water. The proportion of blood cannot be more than one in a million. I have no doubt, however, that we shall be able to obtain the characteristic reaction.”
As he spoke, he threw into the vessel a few white crystals, and then added some drops of a transparent fluid. In an instant, the contents assumed a dull mahogany color, and a brownish dust was precipitated to the bottom of the glass jar.
Holmes was so well pleased that he added, “Now we have the Sherlock Holmes’ test....”
At this point a sour note can be injected. Assuming that Holmes did discover a sensitive test for hemoglobin, it was nevertheless not a specific one for human blood. The blood of many animals contains hemoglobin. In a case of murder, for example, if blood were found on a cudgel, a knife, or on the clothing of a suspect, it would still have to be proved that it was human blood. This, incidentally, can now be scientifically shown, but it is a long, delicate procedure.
After Holmes had demonstrated his brilliant experiment, the trio sat down, and Holmes and Watson discussed the possibility of sharing rooms. Holmes volunteered, “I generally have chemicals about, and occasionally do experiments.” Parenthetically, it may be stated that Watson on later occasions complained about the odors produced by these experiments. As we know, however, an agreement was reached, and perhaps the two most famous characters in fiction decided to cast their lot together and locate on 221B Baker Street.
The staid Dr. Watson, after living with Holmes several weeks, took it upon himself to make an appraisal of his unusual roommate. His conclusions were that Holmes’ knowledge in certain areas, such as literature, philosophy, and astronomy, was “nil,” but in the field of chemistry, “profound.”
Holmes as a college student had evinced a marked interest in chemistry. When telling Dr. Watson the story of The “Gloria Scott,” his first case, he said: “All this occurred 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.”
Holmes maintained his interest in chemistry throughout the years. In The Red-Haired League, Watson describes how he called on Holmes one day: “A formidable array of bottles and test-tubes, with the pungent cleanly smell of hydrochloric acid, told me that he had spent his day in the chemical work which was so dear to him.” When Watson asked him whether he had reached a solution, Holmes answered in the affirmative, and stated it was the bisulphate of baryta. Watson, evidently disgusted said, “No, no, the mystery.” Holmes’ reply was: “Oh, that! I thought of the salt that I have been working upon.” Today one seldom hears the word “baryta” in this country; we speak of it as “barium.” The bisulphate of baryta, therefore, which Holmes mentioned, becomes barium sulphate.
The hobby of the great detective, it appears, afforded him relaxation, for we find:
“Well, I gave my mind a thorough treat by plunging into a chemical analysis. One of our greatest statesman has said that a change of work is the best rest. So it is. When I had succeeded in dissolving the hydrocarbon which I was at work at, I came back to our problem of the Sholtos, and thought the whole matter out again.”
The Sign of the Four
In his later years, Holmes must have missed his chemical experiments; for once, when he was away from home, we find Watson writing that his friend’s temper was on edge because he especially yearned for his chemistry bench and his scrapbook (The Adventure of the Three Students).
Holmes was wont at times to announce the results of his chemical researches in a dramatic manner. According to Watson, his hero was not averse to seeking the limelight. We already have seen how Holmes acted when he discovered an agent precipitated only by hemoglobin. He insisted upon telling of his important discovery before giving Stamford an opportunity of presenting Watson. We find another typical example in The Naval Treaty:
Holmes was seated at his side-table clad in his dressing-gown, and working hard over a chemical investigation. A large curved retort was boiling furiously in the bluish flame of a Bunsen burner, and the distilled drops were condensing into a two-litre measure. My friend hardly glanced up as I entered, and I, seeing that his investigation must be of importance, seated myself in an armchair and waited. He dipped into this bottle ... and finally brought a test-tube containing a solution over to the table. In his right hand he held a slip of litmus paper.
“You come at a crisis, Watson,” said he. “If this paper remains blue, all is well. If it turns red, it means a man’s life.” He dipped it into the test-tube and it flushed at once into a dull, dirty crimson. “Hum, I thought as much!”
It is hardly necessary to point out that such dramatic chemical discoveries so glibly announced by Holmes are rare, and it is not given to any one individual to find many of them in a lifetime.
Reference already has been made to the fact that the reader rather expects Dr. Watson to make mention of the chemical bench when he describes the rooms at 221B Baker Street. One imagines Dr. Watson of a winter evening sitting in his rocking chair before the fire, absorbed in a treatise on surgery while Sherlock Holmes is busily engaged with some chemical problem. In The Adventure of the Mazarin Stone, we find Watson writing that it was pleasant to find himself again at 221B Baker Street, and that he felt at home when he saw the old chemical bench, the chemicals, and the other paraphernalia in the living room. Watson again mentions this in The Adventure of the Empty House, where he speaks of the old landmarks, and especially of the chemical corner.
On one occasion, Watson described a small chemical laboratory in a dwelling place.
It appeared to have been fitted up as a chemical laboratory. A double line of glass-stoppered bottles was drawn up upon the wall opposite the door and the table was littered over with Bunsen burners, test-tubes and retorts. In the corner stood carboys of acid in wicker baskets. One of these appeared to leak, or to have been broken, for a stream of dark-coloured liquid had trickled out from it, and the air was heavy with a peculiarly pungent, tarlike odor.
The Sign of the Four
This passage shows clearly that Dr. Watson was quite familiar with the arrangement in chemical laboratories.
Previously, it was mentioned that at their first meeting Holmes had warned Watson that he preferred to do chemical experiments in his rooms. The good doctor probably did not think much about it at that time, but later he had occasion to get firsthand information. In The Musgrave Ritual, Watson, telling how untidy Holmes was, states, “Our chambers were always full of chemicals....” We find further, in The Sign of the Four:
He [Holmes] would hardly reply to my questions and busied himself all the evening in an abstruse chemical analysis, which involved much heating of retorts and distilling of vapors, ending at last in a smell which fairly drove me out of the apartment. Up to the small hours of the morning I could hear the clinking of his test-tubes which told me that he was still engaged in his malodorous experiments.
And again, in The Adventure of the Dancing Men, we find Watson writing that Holmes was fouling the air with some malodorous chemical experiment. And finally, in The Adventure of the Dying Detective, Watson relates that the long-suffering Mrs. Hudson, too, often had to put up with noxious odors emanating from Holmes’ chemical experiments.
One wonders whether on occasion Watson regretted the day he agreed to share an apartment with his famous friend. It may be that Watson, who also had had considerable chemistry in his medical student days, did not mind too much the ill smells which from time to time polluted their living quarters; at any rate, there is no indication that Watson ever thought of seeking other quarters on this account.
Not only did Holmes’ chemical experiments fill the apartment with unpleasant odors, but he also kept ungodly hours. In The Adventure of the Copper Beeches, we find:
The telegram ... came late one night, just as I was thinking of turning in, and Holmes was settling down to one of those all-night chemical researches which he frequently indulged in, when I would leave him stooping over a retort and a test-tube at night and find him in the same position when I came down to breakfast in the morning.
This instance, as well as others just mentioned, clearly show that Holmes was apt to devote long hours to his experiments. Evidently, he thought nothing of sitting up until the small hours of the morning, or, for that matter, all night, pursuing his researches. If young college instructors in departments of chemistry showed such zeal, they surely would soon gain recognition in their fields. Working all day and most of the night, however, probably is too much to expect of the average human frame.
The casual reader naturally takes it for granted that Holmes’ love for chemistry was due to his interest in crime detection; that is, he intended to use the knowledge he gained from his experiments for practical purposes. We recognize this today as applied research. I would like to emphasize that Holmes was interested in pure or basic research, too—in other words, research which has no immediate practical value. Instances may be found in the tales to support this view. I will mention only two: “That will do very nicely. Then perhaps I had better postpone my analysis of the acetones, as we may need to be at our best in the morning” (The Adventure of the Copper Beeches). And, in The Final Problem, Holmes remarks rather plaintively to Watson: “Between ourselves, the recent cases in which I have been of assistance to the royal family of Scandinavia, and to the French Republic have left me in such a position that I could continue to live in the quiet fashion which is most congenial to me, and to concentrate my attention upon my chemical researches.”
His interest in basic research is rather remarkable, for in that day there were comparatively few persons engaged in any type of chemical research. Today, of course, there are thousands of chemists working in institutions of higher learning and also in many industries. Indeed, some of the chemists in large industrial plants are not only allowed but encouraged to do basic research.
We can conceive of Holmes as a famous professor of chemistry in a great university. In The Adventure of the Dancing Men, Watson writes that Holmes had propped his test tubes in a rack, and that he then began to lecture like a professor addressing his class. As a teacher, he might at times have been somewhat curt with his students and probably impatient with the stupid ones, but at all times he would have been fair. He had the energy, stamina, and enthusiasm not only to be a stimulating teacher but a productive scholar as well. He would not have been an armchair professor, but rather a leader in his chosen field. We are thankful that he did not choose an academic career, for then the delightful Sherlock Holmes stories never would have been written, and the world would be a less interesting place in which to live.
In closing, we can paint a pleasant picture of Sherlock Holmes in his retirement in his comfortable home on the Sussex Downs. We can imagine him in the long English twilight working at his chemical bench before a large window overlooking the beautiful countryside. His fingers are stained with acids, alkalies, silver nitrate, and other potent chemicals. His pipe is going full blast, and his brow is probably perplexed as he scans a recent learned treatise on the chemistry of the aldehydes or the alkaloids.
While his researches may be profound and manifold, it is more than likely that he devotes his best efforts toward the detection of some obscure poisons, with the hope that some scheming sinister criminal may be brought to justice. Time does not hang heavily on his hands in his retirement, for there is no end to chemical researches; infinite problems present themselves to the prepared mind. With his keen intellect, his wide knowledge, and his rich imagination, he has doubtless outlined investigative work which will keep him happy and busy for years to come.