188 THI

had been sent to him from New Zealand, and the previous day a great packet of documents relating to a disputed will had been received from DBristol. But the sug- gestions are scldom practicable. Other letters come from pcople who have been reading the latest of his storics, saying \\hcthu they guessed the my &tm\ or not. Iis rcason for whammo from writing any more stories for a while 1s a candid one. Tle is fearful of spoiling a character of which he 1s particularly fond, but he declares that already he has cnough material to carry him through another series, and merrily assures mec that he thouorht (he opening story of e nest series of % Sherlock Holmes,” to he published in this magazine, was of such an unsolvable character, that he had posi- tively bet his wife a shilling that she would not guess the true solution of 1t until she cot to the end of the chapter !

After my visit to Dro Dovle, T communi- cated with Mr. Joseph Bell, in Fdinbureh —the gentleman whose mgenious person-

ality sugggbtul Sherlock Holmes 1o his old pupil. The letter he sent in reply is of such interest that 1t 1s appended 1moits cntirety - —

Melville-crescent,

Fdinburgh, June 16, 1802,

Dear Sir,—You ask me about the kind of teaching to which Dr. Conan Doyle has so kindly re- ferred, when speak- meg - of his adeal character, * Sherlock [Tolmes" Dr. Conan Doyle has, by his imaginative agenius, made a great deal out ot very Ittle, and his warm remembrance of one of s old teachers has coloured the picture. In tcach- mg the treatment of disease and accident, all careful tcachers have first to show the student how to recognise accurately the case. The re- cognition depends in egreat measure on the accurate and rapid appreciation of

. . R e T S sy e

MR JOSERHD BELLL. Frawm o Photo by 40 Swan Wadson, Idintanral,

77

small points mm which the diseased differs from the healthy state. In fact, the student must be taught to observe. To interest him i this kind of work we teachers find it uscful to show the student how much a traimed usc of the observation can discover i ordinary matters such as the previous history, nationality, and occupation of a patient.

The patient, too, 1s likely to be impressed

by vour ability to cum him in the future il he sees vou, at a glance, know much of his past. And the whole trick is much

casicer than 1t appears at first,

[*or mstancce, physiognomy helps you to nattonality, accent to district, and, to an cducated caryalmost to county. Nearly cvery handicraft writes its sign manual on the hands. The scars of mincr differ lrom those of the quarryman, The carpenter’s callosities are not those of the mason. The shoemaker and the tailor are quite different,

The soldier and the cailor differ in gait, though last month T had to tell 2 man who sard he was a soldier that he had been a sailor in his boyhood. "The subject 1s end- less o the tattoo marks on hand or arm will tell their own tale as to voyages ; the orna- ments on the watch chain of the success- ful scttler will tell yvou where he made his moncey. .\ New Zealand squatterwill not wear a gold mohur, nor an cn- omeer on an Indian ratlway a Maori stone. Carry the same 1dea of using one's senses accur- ately and constantly, and youwill see that many a surgical case will bring his past history, IldllOH’l], social, and medical, mto the consulting- room as he walks in. Dr. Conan Doyle's cenius and mtense imagiation has on this slender basis made his detective stories a distinetly newdeparture but he owes much less than he thinks to yours truly Josrru BrrJ.

P ey VP,