An Introduction To The Medical Casebook
Making A Start
Back in 2018 I started to think about writing a
book combining several of my interests - Dr Arthur Conan Doyle and Sherlock
Holmes; the history of medicine; general practice. I started slowly, but
progress picked up with the COVID lock-down.
“The Medical Casebook Of Sherlock Holmes And Dr
John Watson” will be
published on September 28th 2023, by MX Publishing.
I wanted to provide a blog in the run-up to
publication – to allow potential buyers to get a preview of the book, and also
with the goal of triggering interesting discussion about the themes of the
book.
The illustration above is for the cover of the
book. It was drawn by an extremely talented young illustrator, Alex Holt, who
has provided a series of drawings for the book.
The Book
Sir Arthur
Conan Doyle was a General Practitioner 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.
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,
depression, 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.
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.
About Me
I am a GP
and longstanding Sherlock Holmes fan. I grew up in Milton, Portsmouth, very
close to Dr Arthur Conan Doyle’s Elm Grove medical practice. My first encounter
with Sherlock Holmes was through the Basil Rathbone movies. I then moved onto
the Sherlock Holmes stories themselves. My obsession with Conan Doyle and
Sherlock Holmes was then fully entrenched when I discovered that Conan Doyle
was one of the founders of Portsmouth Amateur Football Club. At the time I
would have been standing on the terraces for all home matches. Fratton Park is
in Milton, and the roar from the ground on a Saturday is one of my earliest
memories [along with 1970’s football violence, which often played out along my
road]. Conan Doyle even played for my team.
The stories
were quite possibly a factor in helping me decide to head to Medical School in
Sheffield. I was fascinated by Holmes’s deductive technique – partly how he
solved the mysteries, but particularly how he was able to tell so much about a
person at a mere inspection, when they walked through the door of 221B Baker
Street. I wouldn’t then have been aware that doctors use very similar techniques
with patients, but the concept of what I would now call hypotheticodeductive
reasoning was just so intriguing. Sherlock even had a sidekick who was a
doctor, and Dr Watson became a further role-model for me.
For the
last 20 years, I have worked in the Yorkshire Dales, also in an area well known
to Conan Doyle [his mother lived in my practice area for 30 years]. I am the
doctor for the Cave Rescue Organisation. I am a very experienced medical
educator, teaching GP’s in training. I also teach dermatology to doctors around
the world via a post with Cardiff University.
Plans For The Blog
I’m going to be writing weekly posts until the book is published … and maybe beyond if there is enough interest in the blog.
My next post will largely be my introductory chapter which expands on the background to the book.
This will be followed by some example chapters – I’m yet to decide which.
From there we’ll see where
things go, hopefully led in part by comments from those reading the blog. I
have some medical Sherlock Holmes pastiche stories I can share. It might be
interesting to discuss modern general practice from someone who has been a GP
for over 25 years. It will also be a privilege to share more about my fantastic
illustrator, Alex Holt.
My Kickstarter Project
I have a Kickstarter project in progress, with
some very tempting rewards. This can be found at:-
Buying The Book
“The Medical Casebook Of Sherlock Holmes And
Dr John Watson” can be
preordered from the following places:-
Amazon
Barnes + Noble
MX Publishing
[Books will be shipped direct from my
publisher in August, so in advance of publication date]
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