Discovering Sherlock Holmes - A Community Reading Project From Stanford University

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   "Phosphorus," I said.
   "A cunning preparation of it," said Holmes, sniffing at the dead animal. "There is no smell which might have interfered with his power of scent."
Needless to say, this magical compound is an invention of Conan Doyle's. Phosphorus is extremely caustic--not to mention poisonous--and could burn through flesh right down to the bone.

   "You have saved my life."
   "Having first endangered it."
Sometimes, although not always, Holmes applies his brutal honesty to his own shortcomings.


	A partial map of the moor, with all its features marked: towns, tors, mires, barrows, etc. From Samuel Rowe, A Perambulation of the Ancient and Royal Forest of Dartmoor.

But the shock of the night's adventures had shattered his nerves, and before morning he lay delirious in a high fever, under the care of Dr. Mortimer. The two of them were destined to travel together round the world before Sir Henry had become once more the hale, hearty man that he had been before he became master of that ill-omened estate.
Poor Sir Henry Baskerville has succumbed to a well-known 19^th-century malady affecting only literary characters: brain fever resulting from a shock. This "disease" is more metaphorical than real, and generally serves to impress upon the reader the gravity of the horror experienced by the character and the depth of his or her sensitivity. Without the high fever, the modern reader could accept "shattered nerves" as a 19^th-century description of a malady we take quite seriously today: post-traumatic stress disorder.

Holmes sank to his waist as he stepped from the path to seize it, and had we not been there to drag him out he could never have set his foot upon firm land again.
One would assume that the third person here is Lestrade, not Mrs. Stapleton, although Watson does not say.

Holmes's enthusiasm for the chase is shown in his disregard for his own safety. He knows that Watson and Lestrade, both practical men, will be there to pull him out of the mire.

A huge driving-wheel and a shaft half-filled with rubbish showed the position of an abandoned mine.
The remains of tin mines, from the Bronze Age to the early 20^th century, can be found upon the moor. Conan Doyle probably visited some ruins during his stay in Dartmoor.