From: "denis-feldmann" <denis-feldmann@wanadoo.fr>
Subject: Moriarty and mathematics (was Re: who will be the first to ...)
Date: Sat, 14 Oct 2000 16:22:12 +0200
Newsgroups: sci.math
Summary: [missing]

Adam Atkinson <ghira@mistral.co.uk> wrote in  message :
397.322T1991T8184588ghira@mistral.co.uk...
> On 14-Oct-00 11:22:50, denis-feldmann said:
>
> >> Moriarty talking to Holmes?
> >>
> >Elementary , my dear Atkinson.
>
> Splendid. I've no idea which book/story it's from, though.

A few mathematical (and other) notes on all this: the encounter between
Holmes and Moriarty takes place in "The Final Problem" Look here for the
complete story: http://holmes-sherlock.com/sherlock/mem/fina.html .
For those who just want their memory refreshed, we learn here that Moriarty
was made famous all over Europe by publishing at 21 his treatise on the
Binomial Theorem. But it is in "The Valley of Fear " that the following
information was given: (Holmes speaking):

But in calling Moriarty a criminal you are uttering libel in the eyes of the
law -- and there lie the glory and the wonder of it! The greatest schemer of
all time, the organizer of every deviltry, the controlling brain of the
underworld, a brain which might have made or marred the destiny of
nations -- that's the man! But so aloof is he from general suspicion, so
immune from criticism, so admirable in his management and self-effacement,
that for those very words that you have uttered he could hale you to a court
and emerge with your year's pension as a solatium for his wounded character.
Is he not the celebrated author of The Dynamics of an Asteroid, a book which
ascends to such rarefied heights of pure mathematics that it is said that
there was no man in the scientific press capable of criticizing it? Is this
a man to traduce? Foul- mouthed doctor and slandered professor -- such would
be your respective roles! That's genius, Watson"

Note the many analogies with our own PL, there :-) On the same subject,
Isaac Asimov made a Black Widows story where the usual gang (and Henry) try
to reconstruct (for the Baker Street Irregulars) the content of "The
Dynamics of an Asteroid", with ominous hints of the practical use Moriarty
intended for his theories.

Also, I am redevant to Conan Doyle for the uses here of libel, slander and
traduce. It answered nicely one of my recent enquiry :-)