This Article  • Full text PDF  • Send to a friend  • Save in My Folder  • Save to citation manager  • Permissions  Citing Articles  • Contact me when this article is cited  Related Content  • Similar articles in JAMA  Social Bookmarking   What's this?

Boris M. Astrachan, MD; Sandra Boltax, MD
New Haven, Conn

JAMA. 1966;196(12):1094.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

To the Editor:—

We were pleased to note the attention devoted to that superior individual and most renowned consulting detective, Sherlock Holmes, in Dr. Musto's careful study "Sherlock Holmes and Heredity" (196:45, 1966). We, however, were appalled by the suggestion that Holmes suffered from a form of paranoia. The skills of the historian must be carefully tempered by the wisdom of the clinician before diagnostic assumptions about historical personages are made. On the basis of conclusive evidence, careful observation, and astute deduction (not unlike that of Mr. Holmes), we have concluded that Holmes had a manic-depressive disorder. Whatever paranoia he may have had ( and the evidence for this is inconclusive) might well have been secondary to such underlying disease. That Holmes had a cyclical disorder is demonstrated in A Study in Scarlet. "Nothing could exceed his energy when the working fit was upon him; but now and again a . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter     What's this?