I was enjoying a nice relaxing read, and then happened upon this passage. The world will never be the same folks. Sherlock was a dottle hoarder. -sob-
What Madness Is This?
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I thought everyone knew that. Seem to remember him keeping them in a Persian slipper. Would it also shock you to know he was a drug addict?
From The Sign of Four
"Sherlock Holmes took his bottle from the corner of the mantel-piece and his hypodermic syringe from its neat morocco case. With his long, white, nervous fingers he adjusted the delicate needle, and rolled back his left shirt-cuff. For some little time his eyes rested thoughtfully upon the sinewy forearm and wrist all dotted and scarred with innumerable puncture-marks. Finally he thrust the sharp point home, pressed down the tiny piston, and sank back into the velvet-lined arm-chair with a long sigh of satisfaction."
From The Sign of Four
"Sherlock Holmes took his bottle from the corner of the mantel-piece and his hypodermic syringe from its neat morocco case. With his long, white, nervous fingers he adjusted the delicate needle, and rolled back his left shirt-cuff. For some little time his eyes rested thoughtfully upon the sinewy forearm and wrist all dotted and scarred with innumerable puncture-marks. Finally he thrust the sharp point home, pressed down the tiny piston, and sank back into the velvet-lined arm-chair with a long sigh of satisfaction."
If there's a bit too much dottle from a bowl in my ashtray, I put it on top of a bowl to get that going.
Anymore, any dottle I have is basically black ash. You could fill a bowl with it and not get much more smoke from it.
I wonder if a lot of dottle isn't casing boiling down to a concentrate. Bleh.
Anymore, any dottle I have is basically black ash. You could fill a bowl with it and not get much more smoke from it.
I wonder if a lot of dottle isn't casing boiling down to a concentrate. Bleh.
The intention, i suppose, is to portray him as excentric, indifferent to luxury and not stuck in society's norms of behaviour.
If tobacco was as expensive and as it was in his time, you might save the dottle too. Its like when we look at older pipes, the bowls are generally on the small side, as they cost so much to fill.
I tried to save dottle and smoke it. My thought was "hell yeah" as the dottle should be stronger given the extra nicotine it picks up from being at the bottom and having picked up the deposit from the entire smoke.
The only problem was that it tasted foul.
The only problem was that it tasted foul.
One thing to note about Holmes. He was not purely a tobacco connoisseur. He definitely appreciated the qualities of a good tobacco, but he also appreciated the practical application of large doses of nicotine. If you weren't interested in flavor and were merely seeking a massive jolt of nicotine to get the day started, the dottle saving makes sense. This especially makes sense in light of his cocaine use to cope with boredom. He is after all, a purely pragmatic person and a probable sociopath to some degree.
Probably a large portion of megalomania in there too.
Holmes seemed to largely appreciate tobacco use as a stimulant, not as an emblem of connoiseurship, and is often described as smoking cigarettes as well as pipes. Aesthetic appreciation is something Watson says seems to have bypassed Holmes. He says in "Hound of the Baskervilles" that Holmes was interested in seeing an art exhibit, and his appreciation was that of a man with "the crudest ideas"!
With all the smoking and chemistry apparatus at 221B, those quarters probably reeked to high heaven. The rooms probably had a coating of yellow nicotine residue an inch thick or so.
With all the smoking and chemistry apparatus at 221B, those quarters probably reeked to high heaven. The rooms probably had a coating of yellow nicotine residue an inch thick or so.
I wouldn't say so. His honest self assessment of his abilities may appear so, but he was also very honest about his weaknesses and inabilities. Something a megalomaniac couldn't do.
I remembered the dottle but not the mainlining. Poor old Sherlock. Moriarty may have been a bad dream he was having when he o.d.'ed.
I think you are right...smoking from pipes now isn't nearly as commonplace as it was in the late 19th century. The common folks reading these stories in the Strand would definitely have noted that little personal info and it would have made him all the more real to them.
In A Study in Scarlet, Watson makes this statement in response to Holmes:
Sherlock Holmes seemed delighted at the idea of sharing his rooms with me. "I have my eye on a suite in Baker Street," he said, "which would suit us down to the ground. You don't mind the smell of strong tobacco, I hope?"
"I always smoke 'ship's' myself," I answered.
Presumably "ship's" is plug or rope?
Sherlock Holmes seemed delighted at the idea of sharing his rooms with me. "I have my eye on a suite in Baker Street," he said, "which would suit us down to the ground. You don't mind the smell of strong tobacco, I hope?"
"I always smoke 'ship's' myself," I answered.
Presumably "ship's" is plug or rope?
I had a ceramic ashtray that I emptied my smoked pipes into. I hadn't emptied it in a while and there was little mound of ashes and dottle in it. My sister-in-law sat down for a cigarette and put it out in my ashtray. 5 minutes later it exploded, embers (no pun intended) everywhere.
Something smokeable must have been in there.
Something smokeable must have been in there.