  Sherlock Holmes is a fictional character who first appeared in the story of "A study in Scarlet" in 1887. He was created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in late nineteenth century. Even though Sherlock Holmes didn't receive much attention at the beginning of publication, there are 60 narratives (65 short stories and 4 full length novels), the stories have enjoyed enormous international popularity down through the years (Berg).  Nowadays, Sherlock Holmes is the one of the most common literature characters appearing on the screen, and Sherlock Holmes is now a symbol to describe someone who is intelligent and logical. As Stanton O. Berg described Sherlock Holmes in his article published in Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology in 1971, "that Holmes acted as a catalyst in the evolving the modern investigative, identification and forensic science"(Berg). Sherlock Holmes is not only a fascinating character of the novel; he also has made a great contribution to the criminology field and forensic science field.

I, personally, a fan of Sherlock Holmes, am fond of deduction and crime stories. I am currently reviewing the novel of Sherlock Holmes in the Chinese version, and about to read it in English. The author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was not a literature writer like others, so what makes his work so famous and many experts from different fields all give credit to Sherlock Holmes as a mentor of forensic science and investigation, as Berg said, "Sherlock Holmes both as a teacher of scientific investigative methods as well as a germinator of the ideas they later fostered in to being" (Berg). Sherlock Holmes has had a great impact on science and criminology.

The central point of the sources I chose is about what influence Sherlock Holmes had and still has on the forensic science. Stanton O. Berg's article said he thought that Sherlock Holmes affect the modern investigative, identification and forensic science, and he was interested to review what others have had to say on this theory (Berg). Berg showed much evidence of how other authors and experts from different fields had their own opinions toward Sherlock Holmes. He collected the words that others had on Sherlock Holmes whether they were published in the news or their books. At first, Berg showed some evidence from experts that related to general scientific fields such as criminology and medicine. Their words gave credit to Sherlock Holmes that he has influence not only in forensic science and criminology fields, but also science as a whole. He then chose and compared some parts from the novel to some specific areas that Sherlock Holmes has contributed such as the field of cipher, the study of different tobacco ashes, identification of firearms and the importance of individuality of one's handwriting, to reality. Two of the secondary sources indicate that even now a majority of people still believe Sherlock Holmes is a pioneer in the criminology and forensic science field. The foundational source was published in 1971, the author Stanton O. Berg collected evidences from both novel and reality to draw a conclusion that Sherlock Holmes is the father of scientific crime detection. 

The second source is an article called "The real Sherlock Holmes: Was Sherlock Holmes the original forensic scientist? Peter Calamai investigates the evidence", published in cosmos magazine. The article started with a segment from the novel of Sherlock Holmes about the differential diagnosis of human blood test that Sherlock Holmes found. In the real world, this test would be discovered 13 years later by a German medical researcher (Calamai). Then the journalist provides the words from experts of science that indicate the author of Sherlock Holmes, Doyle pointed the way to the future (Calamai). The views of Doyle had on scientific investigation in nineteenth century are the inspiration of modern criminology. The article discusses the background of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and points out his professor Joseph Bell is the reason of the inspiration for the forensic Sherlock Holmes (Calamai). Even though this article wasn't published on an academic journal website, the facts appear true toward the novel of Sherlock Holmes. The article is more about identifying Sherlock Holmes as a forensic scientist and why the author had the idea.

The third source is called "5 Ways Sherlock Holmes Inspired Forensic Investigation", published on Forensic Outreach. According to the website, Forensic Outreach has long been a dynamic and active part of classrooms throughout the United Kingdom and Europe and has developed partnerships with local police forces across the UK, and academic organizations (Forensic Outreach). Therefore the article from this website is reliable. The article points out five things that Sherlock Holmes inspired to forensic investigation: detective work, fingerprints, ciphers, footprints, and handwriting. In Berg's article, he also listed examples of these five ways that Sherlock Holmes has contributed to the field of forensic science. In this article, the author compared examples of each of these five ways from the novel to the modern development of these investigational techniques. 

  The Berg article was published a century ago from the other secondary sources. By comparing sources from different time periods, we can see how Sherlock Holmes has made an influence throughout the centuries; he is still significant enough for people to discuss and research him. Because of the different time periods, there has been bias and limitations toward both sources; I need to find another source that has compared Sherlock Holmes's author's idea of scientific investigation to modern forensic science. The bright part is comparison through history can show that Sherlock Holmes is still a fascinating character for people to find out about.

