The faculty of deduction is certainly contagious… — the search for the real Sherlock Holmes

Abstract

The future of medicine depends on both technological development and creative thinking and, underlying this, is the art of deduction. This may allow us to develop new ideas and move away from traditional patterns of thinking. This article is about a surgeon — a master of deduction — who taught students of medicine the importance of observation in order to obtain an accurate diagnosis. It examines great doctors, the Edinburgh creators of new ideas who, in a sense, created a medical revolution. The biography of Dr. Arthur Conan Doyle (the creator of Sherlock Holmes) is also outlined. Conan Doyle acknowledged that his detective character was based upon Dr. Joseph Bell. This year, the centenary of the death of Dr. Bell, gives us pause for reflection.