Sherlock Holmes and the mystery of the deadly diet.

In honor of the new section on Forensic Dermatology that appears in Clinics in Dermatology, we present a modern-day detective story we created based on Sherlock Holmes, the famous fictional character created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930). In our tale, a victim suspects that he is being slowly poisoned. An alteration of the victim's tongue (atrophic glossitis) and jaundice provide diagnostic forensic dermatologic clues. The serum toxicology is negative, and the police find no evidence of common poisons in the household. Sherlock Holmes, however, suspects foul play and must solve the crime to save the victim's life.