The Adventure of the Speckled Band

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was born in 1859 in Edinburgh, Scotland, and attended the University of Edinburgh Medical School. Although Doyle found little success in his medical practice, his time studying medicine had a profound influence on the detective stories that later brought him fame and fortune. One of Doyle’s professors was Dr. Joseph Bell, a surgeon famous for his ability to deduce much about his patients’ lives and conditions by observing their outward appearances. Doyle gave this remarkable power to Sherlock Holmes, as seen when he identifies Helen Stoner’s mode of transportation from a few mud stains. The detective also possesses Dr. Bell’s “jerky, frenetic energy” and conducts his investigations with surgical precision (Viteri, Tika. “The Mysterious Origins of Sherlock Holmes.” Book Riot, 3 June 2021).

While Doyle drew inspiration from multiple sources and experiences when crafting his famous detective and his adventures, the author’s admiration for his professor and his medical background had a significant influence on his work. Doyle acknowledged his indebtedness to Dr. Bell in a letter to the surgeon: “It is most certainly to you that I owe Sherlock Holmes... round the centre of deduction and inference and observation which I have heard you inculcate I have tried to build up a man” (Chalmers, John.