More on the Art of Observation and Deduction

15 Points Per Correct Answer - No time limit  

1. When Holmes was summoned to investigate the death of Enoch J. Drebber, Holmes easily identified the man who delivered the letter as a retired sergeant and even named the branch of the military the man had belonged to. Watson took this to be "brag and bounce" until he was able to question the man himself, who verified every word Holmes had spoken. What corps had the messenger done service in? The Royal Marines The Royal Artillery Northumberland Fusiliers The Corps of Engineers

2. True or False: When Stanley Hopkins called on Holmes to investigate the murder of sir Eustace Brackenstall at Abbey Grange, his letter was extremely vague. Holmes, however, knew it was a serious matter from the wording of the letter and the agitation Hopkins had shown when writing. He could also tell Watson that they were moving in high society, based on an estimate of how long it would have taken Hopkins to be alerted at Scotland Yard, go out, and send the letter to Holmes. True False

3. The letter Holmes received from Lord St. Simon did not tell Holmes very much, as he was not familiar with the painful event of St. Simon's marriage and the disappearance of the bride. But Holmes immediately noticed that his Lordship had experienced another, much more trivial, misfortune that very morning. What kind of accident was this? He had spilled his morning tea He had cut himself while shaving He had gotten a smear of ink on his finger His shoe shine had been performed very sloppily

4. During "The Greek Interpreter" Sherlock and Mycroft Holmes engaged in a little brotherly competition to see who could observe and deduce the most about an unknown man they saw from the window of the Diogenes club. Mycroft won when he stated what point? The number of children the man had The man's profession, as a billiard-marker That the man had been in the artillery That the man had recently been to India

5. Dr. Watson was always Holmes' easiest subject to glean information from, as he does several times in the Canon. For instance, in "The Adventure of the Crooked Man" Holmes could tell from Watson's very clean boots that he had been busy in his medical practice lately. True False

6. In "The Hound of the Baskervilles", Dr. Mortimer left his walking stick at the rooms in 221b. Holmes could see from the stick that the doctor had a small dog, by the tooth marks the dog had made in it. But how could Holmes know that the dog was a curly-haired spaniel? By the color of the dog hairs clinging to the muddy parts of the stick He could see the dog on their doorstep that very moment He measured the width and depth of the bite marks, and knew then how its jaw must look like Both by the size of the bite marks, and the hairs on the cane

7. One October evening in 1881, Holmes and Watson went on a walk through London to get some fresh air. When they returned to Baker Street, they found a carriage waiting outside no. 221 B, one which Holmes could tell belonged to a doctor - a general practitioner who had only recently acquired his own practice. And true enough, the owner turned out to be Dr. Percy Trevelyan, who came to present the case of his resident patient to Holmes. Holmes also immediately made a second observation about Dr. Trevelyan, of what nature? He was educated as an artist, but had made his transition into medicine He had lived an unhealthy and exhausting life He had only been waiting a few minutes He had lived in mortal terror for a few weeks

8. Mr. James Dodd came to Holmes with a very strange case, known as "The Adventure of the Blanched Soldier". Holmes gave him a small display of his deduction powers, something that always impressed his clients and gave them a feeling of being in capable hands. For his first remark, Holmes concluded that Dodd had recently been a soldier in South Africa, both on the basis of his tan and what other feature? The letter-head on the note he had written to Holmes He was still wearing "ammunition boots" His handkerchief was in his sleeve instead of his pocket Gun-oil had discoloured the skin between his thumb and forefinger

9. Finish this quote from "The Solitary Cyclist": "I nearly fell into the error of supposing that you were typewriting. Of course, it is obvious that it is _____. You observe the spatulate finger-end, Watson, which is common to both professions?" Answer: (One word, 5 letters, first letter "m". A cultural activity.)

10. And finally, the most famous of them all: When Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson were first introduced to one another, the very first sentence spoken by Holmes was "How are you? You have been in _________, I perceive". Which country had Watson recently arrived from? India Afghanistan South Africa Australia