i have a few questions. these are:
1) is it really true that there were no tests for identifying dried blood before holmes' test?
2) which year did holmes and watson meet? was it 1881?
3) holmes is ignorant about the Copernican theory and the composition of the solar system because according to holmes, "If we went round the moon it would not make a pennyworth of difference to me or to my work.”
but he mentions Euclid's propositions ("His conclusions were as infallible as so many propositions of Euclid"). does it make any difference to him or his work whether Euclid's propositions were infallible or not? (by the way, he also mentions Euclid's fifth proposition in The Sign of Four)
4) holmes says that a man's height can be calculated from the length of his stride. i am really interested to know the relationship between a man's height and the length of his stride. can anyone help?
5) why did holmes give an advertisement about the ring before he knew whether it was mentioned in the evning papers or not?
6) in chapter 6 (Tobias Gregson Shows What He Can Do), watson wrote that gregson came up the stairs three steps at a time and burst into their sitting room. how did he know that it was "three steps at a time" if he only heard his footsteps? he didn't even know the total number of steps in the staircase.
7) why did Hope leave the pills in stangerson's room?
8) why did Hope went as a cabman to 221B Baker Street when he knew that his accomplice (who went to retrieve the ring) was followed by a man from that same house?
9) what does the following mean:
“Populus me sibilat, at mihi plaudo
Ipse domi simul ac nummos contemplar in arca.”