Beyond the obvious

"After all these years of accompanying you upon your investigations, I thought that by now I should be reasonably capable of following your train of thought... But in this particular case, I must admit that I don't understand anything at all"

"Ah, you see but you do not observe, Watson. There lies the difference. It is a matter of course."
-- The Testaments of Sherlock Holmes  -- Frogwares.

As the excitement grew in me, I couldn't help it but write it down. Like wow, this is one of the rare and most interesting word exchanges between John Watson and his partner, who is a specialist in crime, Sherlock Holmes. A brilliant mind like his would never cease to amaze me.

Upon reading the first chapter of The Hound of the Baskervilles, I was totally fascinated by the fact that, based on a few facts and after a few minutes of examination (as he calls it an observation), Holmes was able to deduce and identify the possessor of a cane which was left behind from the night before. I might just say the detective's mind's knowledge graph is remarkably concise and contains a huge deal of systemically organized data.

The walking stick was a thick piece of wood bearing an engraving that said: "To James Mortimer, M.R.C.S., from his friends of the C.C.H."

"Interesting, though elementary", said Holmes. "There are certainly one or two indications upon the stick. It gives us the basis for several deductions."

"Has anything escaped me?" Asked Watson, "‘I trust that there is nothing of consequence which I have overlooked?". If I were Watson, I would have said: "I'm very pleased to see you find this situation amusing, Holmes. Very well then, entertain me!"

"I am afraid, my dear Watson, that most of your conclusions were ... erroneous."

Watson's deduction involving the owner of the stick being a country practitioner who walks a lot was entirely logical and it was correct. His reasoning was based on examination alone. An over-used and knocked about stick would be carried not by a town practitioner, but a country practitioner. Furthermore, the metal ferrule was worn down, pointing out that the stick was used a lot for visiting on foot.

However, Watson's guess concerning the engraved initials on the stick was a little bit off. He thought the man had been a hunting club's medical surgeon.

So what were Holmes' hypotheses? He concluded that their visitor was a young man under 30 years old, amiable, unambitious, absent-minded and has a favorite dog roughly larger than a terrier and smaller than a mastiff.

• Holmes suggested that Dr. Mortimer was more likely to come from a hospital than from a hunt as C.C.H. means "Charing Cross Hospital" which very naturally suggest themselves.

From thereon, further inferences were only natural to show up. According to Holmes:

• The walking stick is a gift to Dr. Mortimer on the occasion of him withdrawing from the service of the hospital in order to start his own practice. Therefore:
• There has been a presentation (the act of presenting).
• There has been a change from a town hospital to a country practice.
• The presentation occurred upon that occasion.
• Dr. Mortimer could only have been a house-surgeon or a house-physician. Because:
• He couldn't have been in the staff of the hospital since only a man well-established in a London practice could hold such a position, and such a one would not drift into the country.
• He left five years ago, as the engraved date on the stick tells.
• The visitor is amiable, unambitious and absent-minded.
• It is Holmes' experience that it is only an amiable man in this world who receives testimonials
• Only an unambitious one who abandons a London care for the country
• Also, only an absent-minded one who leaves his stick and hot his visiting-card after waiting an hour in a room.
• The dog has been in the habit of carrying this stick behind his master.
• Because the stick is heavy, the dog has held it tightly by the middle, and the marks of his teeth are very plainly visible.
• The size of the dog's jaw suggests its size. It may have been a curly-haired spaniel.

    Sherlock Holmes had risen and paced the room as he spoke. Now he halted in the recess of the window. There was such a ring of conviction in his voice that I glanced up in surprise.
    'My dear fellow, how can you possibly be so sure of that?'
    'For the very simple reason that I see the dog himself on our very doorstep, and there is the ring of its owner. Don’t move, I beg you, Watson. He is a professional brother of yours, and your presence may be of assistance to me. Now is the dramatic moment of fate, Watson, when you hear a step upon the stair which is walking into your life, and you know not whether for good or ill. What does Dr. James Mortimer, the man of science, ask of Sherlock Holmes, the specialist in crime? Come in!

What a start of an adventure, don't you think?