The historical prototype of Sherlock Holmes

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Everyone knows Sherlock Holmes, the hero of the stories of Arthur Conan Doyle, who, of course, is considered a classic of the detective genre.Many still believe in the fact of its existence, what can testify to the letter with a request for assistance, which currently come at Baker Street 221 B in a large enough quantity.The facial features, personality, character, using deductive reasoning and even a tobacco pipe: all that Doyle wrote off from its Edinburgh professor Joseph Bell.

Joseph Bell is a surgeon and lecturer at the University of Edinburgh, which surprised their highly refined intelligence of students, including Arthur Conan Doyle, who first met Professor in 1877 at the age of 17 years.

Bella was an ambitious dream to use their skills in the field of chemistry, toxicology, pathology, graphology and science in solving crimes.For the first time the opportunity for him given his close friend Henry Duncan Littlejohn, thus opening the gates for him in the dark world of crime.Joseph Bell helped Henry to investigate the mysterious death of Ann Lindsey, and concluded that a wound caused damage to the spinal cord, festering and infection, and bacteria began to multiply under the skin and got into the blood stream, which expanded blood vessels and as a result - was the cause of cardiac arrest.This conclusion found that the death was caused by infected wounds and helped the police to initiate criminal proceedings.

So, Joseph Bell, along with Henry Littlejohn investigated dozens of cases, including the case of Eugene Chanterelle, Cantal, a wealthy French linguist.January 2, 1877, they investigated the death of his wife - Elizabeth.Eugene said that she died because of the coal gas, but Joseph Bell intuitively felt murder.Since at that time was not as developed as it is now hardware, the Bell used his senses and deductive reasoning, which he called the "method".He noticed the traces of vomit on the pillow, which was a strange fact when illuminating gas poisoning.He further found that the gas pipe were artificially rasped, and Elizabeth had already been poisoned by the time of opium, which ordered Ezhan excessively large volume (30 vials) shortly before the incident, which was found in the examination of tracks vomit on the pillow.January 5 Ezhan was arrested and soon executed.

These and many other stories from the life of the professor made a great impression on the young Arthur Conan Doyle, who also worked as an assistant Joseph Bell and day-to-day detail studied the behavior of the prototype of the future of their works.

After receiving a diploma and a bachelor's degree in medicine in 1881, Doyle left the University of Edinburgh.

In March 1886, during the intensive growth of crime and the incompetence of the police did the idea of ​​Sherlock Holmes.Already in 1887 it was published the first Sherlock Holmes story "A Study in Scarlet" and has sold 40,000 copies.

history of Sherlock Holmes was a real sensation in the literature, which has been translated into dozens of languages ​​and still prints all over the world.Interest Joseph Bell has increased significantly among fans of Sherlock Holmes, however, despite its popularity, Bell worked for 64 years and then retired and settled in their elegant country estate Morisvud, where he lived until 1911.