I noticed the Doctor was a writer from the callous that was on his right middle finger as soon as I saw him. He is indeed an arts man, though with the spirit that nurtured which was stronger, taking him into medicine. He is fairly knowledgeable about a great deal of things and was a marvel to talk to, because he is interesting with his stories of his travels, and also because he seems so withdrawn if I don't talk to him.
I pity him. I hate pity, but it is the right label to give such an emotion. He was clearly an active man, and has been hit hard by his war wound.
But I soon realised he does have one, intense pastime. His writing often wakes him at night, takes him away before my eyes. He will be in the middle of a sentence and he will trail off, having interrupted himself. Then he will limp away to find his "little red pocketbook" and scribble furiously for a good ten minutes, than look back and casually start the sentence again where he had left off.
I don't know him very well, so feel it is none of my business to know what he scrawls down in that red book. He has made no motion to tell me. So when I saw papers in the fire, only half burned, I was curious. He was in his room, and would not come out for some time. I adjusted my position in the armchair by the fire, and saw my name on the sheet. Without another hesitation, I pulled it out, the heat from the fire radiating uncomfortably to my fingertips. The untidy yet attractively peculiar writing was still clear:
Sherlock Holmes- his limits
1. Knowledge of Literature. -- Nil.
2. Philosophy. -- Nil.
3. Astronomy. -- Nil.
4. Politics. -- Feeble.
5. Botany. -- Variable. Well up in belladonna, opium, and poisons generally. Knows nothing of practical gardening.
6. Geology. -- Practical, but limited. Tells at a glance different soils from each other. After walks has shown me splashes upon his trousers, and told me by their colour and consistence in what part of London he had received them.
7. Chemistry. -- Profound.
8. Anatomy. -- Accurate, but unsystematic.
9. Sensational Literature. -- Immense. He appears to know every detail of every horror perpetrated in the century.
10. Plays the violin well.
11. Is an expert singlestick player, boxer, and swordsman.
12. Has a good practical knowledge of British law.
I don't appear to be as arresting in converse as he had then. Ha. He was entirely and perfectly wrong on most accounts. Philosophy, for example! The Greeks were kings of scientific thoughts, so why shouldn't I have read up on Plato and Socrates? Then I realised. He was trying to find out what my speciality is.
He won't find out. After all, I am the only one in the world.