Quote 4
I trust that I am not more dense than my neighbours, but I was always oppressed with a sense of my own stupidity in my dealings with Sherlock Holmes. Here I had heard what he had heard, I had seen what he had seen, and yet from his words it was evident that he saw clearly not only what had happened, but what was about to happen, while to me the whole business was still confused and grotesque (League.159).
Poor Watson, we certainly don't think he's "more dense" than his neighbors. But Holmes is so amazing, says Watson, that even he feels "oppressed" by his stupidity when Holmes is around. Watson repeats this reflection in nearly every story in this collection, subtly underlining for the reader that Holmes is a real cut above ordinary folk in terms of brainpower.
Quote 5
He laughed very heartily, with a high, ringing note, leaning back in his chair and shaking his sides. All my medical instincts rose up against that laugh.
"Stop it!" I cried; "pull yourself together" and I poured out some water from a caraffe.
It was useless, however. He was off in one of those hysterical outbursts which come upon a strong nature when some great crisis is over and gone. Presently he came to himself once more, very weary and pale-looking. [...]
"Drink this." I dashed some brandy into the water, and the colour began to come back to his bloodless cheeks" (Thumb.11-4).
We don't want to be overly dramatic, but here's one problem with Conan Doyle's public safety announcements: he can't ignore the medical possibilities of the stuff he's talking about. So he talks about the overall social and physical decline caused by alcohol (Henry Baker) and drugs (Isa Whitney). But Watson still uses alcohol in his own practice and, at least until Watson finally gets him to quit, Holmes is still buying over-the-counter cocaine.
Quote 6
It was not the first time that [Kate Whitney] had spoken to us of her husband's trouble, to me as a doctor, to my wife as an old friend and school companion. We soothed and comforted her by such words as we could find. Did she know where her husband was? Was it possible that we could bring him back to her?
It seems that it was. She had the surest information that of late he had, when the fit was on him, made use of an opium den in the farthest east of the City. […] There he was to be found, she was sure of it, at the Bar of Gold, in Upper Swandam Lane. But what was she to do? How could she, a young and timid woman, make her way into such a place and pluck her husband out from among the ruffians who surrounded him? (Twisted.11-2).
The layout of London itself contributes to portrayals of drug abuse by providing a physical location, an actual section of the city, for men to escape their family responsibilities and get high. You definitely don't see Conan Doyle representing opium use in the English countryside – this is a problem that belongs strictly to multicultural, cosmopolitan London. Something else that's striking about this passage is the appearance of Kate Whitney as an "Angel In the House" (see our theme on "Women and Femininity"): she's timid, domestic, and sweet.