16
The working of the mind
Holmes was not a person to
ignore possibilities until there were conclusions to it. He visited the murder
scenes then, from the first reported one to the latest, and some other
possibilities. In the city, an average of three murders were reported daily
with numerous more unreported or classified as others. He focussed on the
details like the missing organs, the murder act, and the proximity to draw up
some map referencing. He then took in the details that others may have ignored
or having eluded them.
Observation may lack detail
scrutiny if the person doing it was performing functionary or careless, and
inconclusive can be biased. The death of a vagrant may not be given the due
examination compared to that of the gentleman. It was not the medical examiner
fault but the overworked hours and lack of manpower was some factors.
The reports were there in
the room alongside the print’s clippings and the short messages from the
Baskervilles’ Boys Brigade or the Irregular they were named; youngsters on the
streets who serve as Sherlock Holmes’ eyes and ears. They are inconspicuous to
many onlookers and can be very attentive to details. Their leader named Wiggins
recruited the boys; paid handsomely by Holmes for every tip or news told to
him.
“Artful Dodgers they are.”
Holmes praised his boys. The character Artful Dodger was from the writes in
Oliver Twist.
“Killed!” Holmes was
studying the print on the double murder in the park. Both victims were rowdies
on the street with no fear for anyone, yet were killed in the park at night.
They were mauled as reported and left there. Yet no one linked it to the other
murders for they were the scums and not worth much to report on. The coppers
had said their killing was due to rivalry, and their wounds were made by crude
tools like meat pickers.
“The organs?” Holmes had
frowned on the incomplete report. He had the medical examiner rewarded and was
told the more complete findings.
“I did the autopsy. They
were cut open by some tools, and some organs were cut but left there. I checked
the organs and found it decaying. Probably from overuse of substances or
alcohol. Nothing conclusive, and there were some other deaths that came for me
to examine then.”
Holmes was not amused, but a
line in the report intrigued him.
“Level of blood was low, and
inconsistent. Had asked the coppers to check for the splatter there.”
Blood was essential to the
body.
The humoral system of
medicine, practised in Europe for hundreds of years, defined blood as one of
four vital bodily fluids. To maintain good health and treat illness, it was
believed that the four substances—or humours—needed to be kept in balance. A good
balance between the four humours was considered essential to retain a healthy
body and mind, as imbalance was thought to result in disease. The treatments
for disease within humoral theory were concerned with restoring balance, either
by removing an excess of one humour or promoting the production of another.
Some involved simple changes to diet and lifestyle. But more aggressive
treatments included purging the body with substances to induce diarrhoea and
vomiting, or cutting open a vein to let blood out—a process known as 'breathing
a vein'. It led to bloodletting. Leeches have a long association with
bloodletting. They are a type of worm that, when applied to the skin, can suck
out several times its body weight in blood. (Extract from https://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/objects-and-stories/medicine/blood)
Holmes had seen splatters of
blood at murder cases, and it was mostly ignored or assumed was after process
of the act. The splatters of the blood could determine many acts, from the mode
of the incision to the force of it resulting in the direction of the splatter.
A savage attack by an animal may result in the wide spread of blood but erratic
in patterns, compared to a savage killer with the cleaver.
Holmes studied through the
reports for blood and found little or none. He then took off to the crime
scenes to trace the blood splatters. Due to the period concerned, he focuses on
the more recent murders and scraped off samples of what he thinks are blood
drops. The samples will go to his newly acquired tool; the compound microscope;
Carl Zeiss Compound Monocular Microscope. He had that replaced to his
ever-faithful unit; the Van Leeuwenhoek model.
A chemist without that tool
was like a doctor who does not know what the medicine can do, or should do.
Ever since, Holmes discover the beauty of ‘animalcules’ or ‘animalcula’; living
Atoms did move, they put forth two little horns, continually moving themselves.
He was intrigued by it and had collected his own library of samples; he had to
kept them locked or Mrs Hudson will toss them out as trash. (extract from https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/early-microscopes-revealed-new-world-tiny-living-things-180958912/)
Holmes found nothing unusual
there.
But not so for Doctor
Jekyll. When he mixed the blood samples from the Count with some of his own
concoction, he saw the blood cells multiplying. The cells merged and emerged
bigger, or rather overcome the new cells in an aggressive mode before it reverts
to it normal shape after some time.
It was unfounded before in
his works.
Like an invasion and then
annexure.
“Count, I will need more
blood samples from you.”
“I thought you had my body
fill of it.” Count Vlad smiled. “But please do.”
Doctor Jekyll did the
extraction and found more puzzling results. The Count was transfused with the
‘voluntary’ convict’s blood and yet in the body, it was somehow evolved to
match to the Count’s body.
“Did you feel any
discomfort, Count?”
“No, I have not but an itch
in some places but bearable.” Count Vlad asked. “Why do you ask?”
“I am still testing but do
let me know if you feel any other discomfort.”
There was a knock on the
door then. It was Rosa.
“Someone to see you. He said
it was urgent. His name is Mycroft Holmes.”
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