Most of the cases on which Holmes worked came directly to him, often by a personal visit, a letter or a telegram. ‘A Case of Bananas’ was an exception. Holmes brought his involvement in this singular case upon himself through his habit of spending time every morning carefully reading the day’s papers.
On one such occasion, his attention was drawn to a short report in the Daily Chronicle of Thursday 29 August 1895. The item read:
Death by Misadventure
Ruling on the unfortunate demise of Dr Robert Matteson on 15 August last, the coroner, Mr William Dennis, declared a verdict of ‘Death by Misadventure’. The ruling comes as no surprise to us. Readers may well remember that Dr Matteson, an enthusiast for what he keenly advocated to be a healthy diet, received regular shipments of exotic fruits from the colonies. On the day of his death he took possession of a case of several bunches of bananas from Jamaica. Two young, venomous spiders had remained undetected within the fruit when it was picked, shipped across the Atlantic and unloaded at Tilbury. It was Dr Matteson’s extreme misfortune, as he plucked a single banana from one of the bunches, for his hand to come into contact with both these deadly creatures at the same time. Fully grown men have been known to survive the bite of a single Banana Spider, but the venom of two is surely fatal. So it proved with Dr Matteson, who died within the hour.
While Watson found the story sad but unremarkable, it set Holmes off on a trail that led to Dr Matteson’s wife, Dorothy, and her lover, George Gilbertson, being found guilty of murder and hanged.
When the case was over, Watson, once again astounded by his friend’s powers of detection, asked what made him suspect foul play in the first place.
We are told that at this point Holmes gave a wry smile and lit his pipe. ‘Elementary, my dear Watson,’ he is reported to have said, using his now world-famous catchphrase. ‘My suspicions were aroused the moment I read how the unfortunate Mr Matteson died …’
Find the answer/s here.