Talk:The Adventure of the Speckled Band
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[edit] Comment 1
It might be worth noting that a snake couldn't hear a whistle.
[edit] Comment 2
Cheetahs were present in India until they became extinct in 1950's tamalhazra 10:55, 31 October 2005 (UTC)
[edit] Comment 3
The whistle wasn't used to signal the snake to attack, it was used to signal the snake to return. The sound that Watson heard was a hiss. I'm changing the article accordingly. 24.199.113.126 23:15, 18 February 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Comment 4
The snake/deaf thing has been removed 3 times, eventhough the whole debacle was cited in the link. Just so this thing won't be removed again, here's the quote hosted on San Diego Natural History museum: "But these discrepancies in the choice of some specific snake are immaterial compared with the basic fact that the culprit could not, by any possibility, have been a snake at all. Consider these obvious absurdities: The creature lives on milk, not the natural food of any snake, and one that it will accept only rarely as a substitute for water, if the latter be unobtainable. [b]It is recalled to the doctor's room by a whistle: how could this be when it is well known that snakes are quite deaf? It is true that they are extraordinarily sensitive to vibrations of the substratum upon which they rest, so they often appear to hear sounds of sufficient magnitude to affect such a vibrator as a box in which they may be kept; but this could not be the case with a snake clinging tenuously to a flimsy bell-rope[\b]. Finally, while admitting that a snake might slide down a bell-rope, it could certainly not climb up one, particularly with the lower end swinging loose above the fatal bed. For snakes do not climb -- as many think -- by twining themselves around an object; they climb by wedging their bodies into any crannies and interstices, taking advantage of every irregularity or protrusion upon which a loop of body may be hooked. It is by this method that they progress rapidly up the rough bark of branching trees or the tangled skein of a vine. And, to add to the difficulty of the Roylott snake, it is required to climb on a cold night, for one tragedy took place when the "wind was howling outside, and the rain was beating and splashing against the windows" and the other when there was "a chill wind blowing in our faces." Central heating, of course, was unheard of then; and we know that no grate fire[10] was burning in either room at the time of the final fatality because Holmes insisted "We must sit without a light. He [Roylott] would see it through the ventilator"; and after midnight, when the doctor's stealthy activities began, there was a "momentary gleam of light up in the direction of the ventilator." So we have a creature performing the -- for it -- impossible feat of climbing a loose bell-rope at a temperature at which an ectothermic animal, such as a snake, would be practically comatose. There are eleven other reasons, evident to any beginner in ophiology, why the theory of a snake having caused either death is untenable, but I shall not labor the subject. A small work of my own upon the principles involved can be seen at the British Museum." [[1]] Suredeath 22:42, 19 February 2006 (UTC)
[edit] That Article
I hate that article. It puts all the blame on poor, innocent John Watson and completely ignores Sherlock Holmes's part in the inaccuracies. Holmes was the one who perpetuated the bizarre story of the Indian swamp adder and it was he who should have checked Dr. Watson's report for any misunderstandings or inaccuracies. The article so conveniently neglects to mention his part and instead foists a crazy, insulting theory upon the reader. While it is academically sound, I find that its total lack of objectivity with regards to the results of Watson's and Holmes's mistakes is downright shameful.
