Euclid
From The Arthur Conan Doyle Encyclopedia
Historical figure.
Euclid (ca. 300 BC) was an ancient Greek mathematician active as a geometer and logician. Considered the "father of geometry", he is chiefly known for the Elements treatise, which established the foundations of geometry that largely dominated the field until the early 19th century. His system, now referred to as Euclidean geometry, involved innovations in combination with a synthesis of theories from earlier Greek mathematicians.
In the Sherlock Holmes stories
A Study in Scarlet (1887)
- In his article "The Book of Life", Sherlock Holmes explained that an observant man's conclusions were as infallible as so many propositions of Euclid (STUD 296).
The Sign of Four (1890)
- Sherlock Holmes complained that Dr. Watson had attempted to tinge his cases with romanticism, which produced much the same effect as if he had worked a love-story or an elopement into the fifth proposition of Euclid (SIGN 53).
