The Medical Casebook of Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson

<p class=ql-align-justify>Arthur Conan Doyle was a GP before he became a writer. He uses his medical knowledge widely in the Sherlock Holmes stories. He bases the deductive skills of his hero detective on the diagnostic techniques a GP uses with a patient. He even gives Sherlock a GP sidekick. This all contributes to the enduring popularity of the Sherlock Holmes stories over 130 years after the first story was published.</p><p class=ql-align-justify> </p><p class=ql-align-justify>An amazing 52 diseases feature in the Sherlock Holmes stories. This includes many that remain significant parts of a GP's workload today - diabetes asthma ischaemic heart disease stroke. There are then other diseases that have largely died out in the UK due to advances in medical science - diphtheria brain fever rickets tetanus.</p><p class=ql-align-justify> </p><p class=ql-align-justify>The Medical Casebook of Sherlock Holmes and Dr John Watson takes a definitive look at how Conan Doyle uses these 52 diseases in the stories. It also gives a historical perspective on the Victorian understanding of the diseases using the textbooks Conan Doyle would very likely have had sitting on his consulting room shelves.</p><p><br></p>