Mary's Nineteenth Century

As far as Mary knows, Fregely's delusional disorder (substitute syndrome), known in her previous life, was proposed in the 20s.

Fregely delusional disorder, simply put, is the belief that someone has been replaced by someone who is physically identical but mentally different, and who appears frequently and repeatedly.

Using an inappropriate analogy for easy understanding, patient A thinks that many people around him are possessed by the same soul Z successively.For example, A went out early in the morning, and the coachman he called was possessed by the soul Z; when he arrived at the company, he thought that his boss was also possessed by the soul Z;

Signs like these give A a feeling of being persecuted surrounded by soul Z.

In the 19s, someone in this world defined the symptoms of substitute syndrome in advance.

However, except for very few professional medical personnel, ordinary people rarely pay attention to the treatises on this classification of psychiatry.

Why is it speculated that Baldur has this disease?

That has something to do with his unusual behavior of climbing up the bell tower, and the similarities and differences between poppies and poppies in the letter to his sister Jenny.

"Bald was unwilling to accept the fact that his courtship was rejected, and he did not hesitate to use ancient witchcraft to put wool knots on the roof. According to the so-called effectiveness of witchcraft, Aisha should respond to him immediately, but the reality is cruel."

Mary sorted out the timeline, "Aisha didn't immediately become obsessed with the caster as said in witchcraft, let alone have the idea of ​​wanting to get married in situ."

Bald's expectations fell through, and there must be a reason.

Normally, the sane thing to do is to examine yourself and the health of your relationship, but Balder broke his head.

If what Aisha said is true, even though the two have not had close contact, Bald would still propose marriage rashly, which shows that he cannot understand himself clearly and objectively.

Baldr was quite paranoid in his personal feelings from the beginning, and with the injury of his right brain, he either induced or deepened his mental illness.

Mycroft pointed out that Balder wrote to his sister half a month after the brain injury, and the letter seemed to mention the similarities and differences between poppies and poppies inexplicably.

"At that time, Bald found the reason for the failure of the marriage proposal. He thought he was in love with the red-haired lady, but was rejected because Aisha Kevin was replaced by an evil spirit."

This evil spirit not only replaced Aisha, but also appeared around Bald from time to time.

It is possible to possess to become his colleague, it is possible to possess to become a face

The owner of the bag shop, or the newsboy on the street, etc.

Facing the ubiquitous evil spirits, how could ordinary people not panic.

On the surface, Baldor wanted to pretend that nothing happened, and he couldn't let the witchcraft of climbing the roof be exposed, but the situation of the evil spirit approaching became more and more serious.

If someone told Baldr at this time that he could expel evil spirits, but he had to do something unreasonable, wouldn't he just sneer and say no?

"May Day is a festival to expel evil spirits. Big Ben, one of the landmark symbols of London, also has the function of exorcism. In addition, the wedding dress symbolizes holiness."

Mycroft speculated, "No matter how ridiculous the exorcism is, but Baldur can believe in wool knot witchcraft. In order to restore normal life, it is very likely that he will try to climb the bell tower in a wedding dress on May Day."

At present, it is known that Bald's body has no dragging and binding injuries, and no signs of drug abuse have been found.He went upstairs almost willingly, obedient as if hypnotized.

In real life, mind controllers who are proficient in hypnosis are rare, but it is not difficult to fool someone who is already convinced that evil spirits haunt.

Mary thought it was more than that, how could the sudden appearance of the exorcist gain Baldr's trust in just one month?

"I think the exorcist is very likely to fabricate an identity. Substitute paranoid patients think that the familiar crowd has been replaced by the same evil spirit, so where does the original soul go in the body of the substitute?"

If Bald thinks that there is an evil spirit in Aisha's body, the exorcist can say that he saved the real Aisha's soul and temporarily let her live with him.

"It's not difficult to make up stories. Because of the matter of the spirit body, many people talk about it, but few people see it."

Mary can say a few paragraphs casually, "The exorcist only needs to grasp two points, talk about Aisha Kevin's past experience, and express that Baldur is the favorite of the red-haired lady. Do what he likes and let Bao A month is more than enough time to take the bait."

If so, the exorcist knows both Baldr and Aisha very well.

I have been paying attention to Bald's dynamics, and I may know the truth about his head injury, and find that he is trying to get rid of the plight of the evil spirit.

It can be seen that the exorcist is not a liar who appears by chance, but a murderer who is waiting for the opportunity to kill Bald.

Motivation?Is another admirer of Aisha crazy about love, successively killing men who may have personal emotional entanglements with Aisha?

To determine this

It is speculated that Merck's grave should be dug up first for his autopsy.

Merck's coffin was well sealed, but eight months later, the body still inevitably rotted.

The body will be sent back to London for detailed testing, and before being loaded into the truck, the gravediggers will first have a general inspection.

Professional gravediggers, of course, refer to Mary and Mycroft.

It's commonplace to know one thing twice, and three times.The two of them didn't go to dig graves for the first time.

Facing the rotting corpse, Mycroft could no longer see anything from the dead Merck's skin.

There are also several funeral objects in the coffin, such as unsmoked cigarettes, such as Merck's personal belongings in his youth.

"N brand cigarettes are often seen in the window advertisements of the Pall Mall department store. Merck has been demoted, and he is still willing to smoke cigarettes at this price."

As she spoke, Mary opened the cigarette case, took out one of the cigarettes and looked at it, frowning slightly.There's something wrong with this smoke.The cigarette box is genuine, but the color of the wrapping paper at the filter part is a little bit darker.

Marie doesn't smoke, but has seen other people smoke, as well as the actual stuff in department stores.

"Mr. Holmes, now I have a question to teach your brother. I don't know how much he knows about counterfeit cigarettes. I think the filter part of cigarettes is slightly different from the N brand cigarettes that are currently sold outside."

"Unfortunately, Sherlock has gone to southern Europe, and there is no way to give a reference."

Mycroft also smoked a cigarette. Although he didn't smoke and didn't know enough about the difference in shredded tobacco, he could judge the authenticity of the outer cigarette paper.

"Mr. Minton, as you said, the color of the filter tip of this half-pack of cigarettes is a bit darker. I wonder if it has something to do with the batch."

The cigarette box shows that it was produced in December 1871, which is the end of the previous year.

I can't find Sherlock, a master of tobacco identification, but I can also find senior salesmen from the N faction, who can more or less identify cigarettes of different years.

Just talking about cigarettes, Mycroft opened the mouth of the deceased.

The first time I saw the suicide bullet hole in the back of Merck's head, the second was to focus on Merck's teeth.

Most of the gums of the corpse had decayed, and the gums where only two or three teeth were left could still be discerned, which seemed suspicious.

"Mr. Minton, look at the gum of the lower molar on the left side of the corpse, is there a faint blue-gray color on it?"

Mycroft pointed out that the thin gray-blue line on the gums of the deceased was not caused by edible foreign objects.

No, but abnormal discoloration of the gums.

Because of the decay of the corpse, it cannot be clearly observed with the naked eye.

Even if you can't see it clearly, you know it's not normal to have thin gray-blue lines on your gums.

"Mr. Holmes, have you read "Alice in Wonderland"? The character of the Mad Hatter is taken from reality."

When Mary saw the gray and blue, she knew that her previous speculation was correct, and that Merck's death was not a simple suicide.

We all know the proverb "Mad as a Hatter".

The Mad Hatter is not just a character in children's fantasy stories, but also a true portrayal of the hat industry in the 18th and 19th centuries.Workers in hat factories often suffer from the same madness.

"Depressed, irritable and suspicious, accompanied by slurred speech. Gradually losing reason, hallucinations and lunatics. Mr. Holmes, does it sound familiar. Some of the symptoms of the hatmaker are similar to those of Merck after he was demoted?"

What Mary is talking about is mercury poisoning, an occupational disease that has not yet been identified.Obtaining a good hat that is shiny and beautiful often requires treating the fur used for crafting with nitric acid and mercury.

Mercury poisoning has another feature.

Some poisoned people will have very thin gray-blue mercury lines on the gums, just like the characteristics of Merck's corpse.

When Mycroft heard about the mercury poisoning, he had an epiphany and understood why the burial cigarettes in the coffin looked wrong. "Hearing you talk about nitric acid and mercury, I think of gold amalgam, which has a so-called indissoluble bond with cigarettes."

Twenty years ago, in the 20s, there was an extremely stealthy art of theft.

The gang of thieves took advantage of the property that gold would be absorbed by mercury to create a magical scene that seemed to make gold disappear out of thin air.

The resulting gold amalgam is hidden in cigarette filters, which unnoticedly brings out the gold.Who checks the filters?After smoking the cigarette, as long as the cigarette butt is recycled, the gold in the alloy can be extracted again. ①

Smoking and stealing go hand in hand.

Sounds brilliant, but gangs of thieves are getting mercury poisoning without knowing it when they smoke cigarettes that contain gold amalgam.

Did thieves in the 50s know what mercury poisoning was?

They may not understand its medical principles, but they have personally verified various symptoms of mercury poisoning.Soon, the seemingly ingenious method of stealing was abandoned.

Over the past 20 years, the pathology of mercury poisoning has not yet been thoroughly studied by the medical community.

Professionals still know

If the understanding is not comprehensive, then even if the general public has more or less heard that working in hat making is prone to madness, they still don't know much about the principles.

So Scotland Yard examined Merk's body, but ignored the grayish-blue abnormalities in his gums.

"That's the key."

Mary doesn't think the average person would think of making mercury cigarettes. "Mr. Holmes, where did you learn about that secret technique? Perhaps the murderer got his inspiration from reading the same book as you."

"A miscellaneous book in the British Museum, if I remember correctly, it was "1866 Fancy Ways to Die in Smoking" published in 99."

Mycroft isn't sure if gold thieves are seriously injured in other books as well. "There may be related records in other books, but I haven't found it yet."

Believe me, this has narrowed it down.

The murderer had contact with Aisha Kevin, was her hidden admirer, and paid attention to strange and eccentric things.Because Aisha's interpersonal network is not complicated, it is relatively easy to locate such a person.

A few days after the incident, there was finally a clue as to who was behind the scenes.

Mary also became interested in chatting, "Mr. Holmes, you have no interest in smoking, and you still read "99 Fancy Ways to Die Smoking". Is it because you care about your brother in every possible way?"

Caring meticulously is equivalent to studying how bad habits make people die quickly.

"I am an enlightened elder brother, how could I restrain my younger brother too much."

Mycroft quickly denied it, and he would not be so lenient. "It was just an amusing little debate with Sherlock, as to whether sweets are bad for health, or smoking is bad for health. Will you take my side, Mr. Minton?"

The author has something to say: ① Cigarettes contain gold amalgam, refer to "Forensics, Police, and Crime Scenes: 216 Strange Questions", [USA] Douglas Lyle