In A Sign Of Four (Doyle), Holmes defends his drug taking of morphine and cocaine thusly…
What does he actually mean and what’s the secondary action he speaks of?
The nosebleeds are worth it.
He injects the coke not snort it.
Hm, I would imagine [having actually read the stories] that he uses coke to boost himself when in his depressive state, and morphine to mellow him down from a manic state.
He values his ability to reason through the clues to a solution, neither of which can be done when in either his manic or his depressive state, so self-medicating allows him to use his reason [in his opinion.]
I think Holmes sees the mind-clearing qualities as positive and primary and the bad physical effects as the “secondary action” and worth it for the benefit of the former.
I read it to mean that for him the primary purpose it serves is to clear and stimulate his mind. The physically bad influence in the first sentence is what he refers to as the secondary action.
ETA: Ninya’ed
Oooooo! that was quite a long and specific sentence to be ninja’d on. neither of us are on consciousness-enhancing substances are we? 
Re-reading his quote I can see how it could be taken that way. It seems a bit clunky (though I love that turn of phrase). I first read it as ‘cocaine is (1) bad and (2) mind-clearing, the second one being no big deal’ which didn’t make sense.
I think he means the physical effects are secondary to the primary benefit. The mind clearing effect may be second in the phrase but primary in purpose.
This, clearly.
Yes as Holmes was a paragon of physical virtue and health. Couldn’t care if his body atrophied as long as the little grey cells were at peak proformance.
The “little grey cells” belonged to Poirot. And as I recall, Watson remarked on Holmes’ strength on more than one occasion. Didn’t he bend an iron poker into a curve in one story?
I think he straighten one that had been bent in the Speckled Band case. IIRC, his client’s father visited him and tried to intimidate him by bending the poker iron.
Heh. You’re Brit right? I’m Indian. I think we tend to see the world in general, and the English language in particular, differently from the Americans
Well, technically he was the client’s stepfather.
I realize it’s unusual to nitpick on this board, but I felt compelled.
Quote:
“Perhaps you are right, Watson,” he said. “I suppose that its influence is physically a bad one. I find it, however, so transcendently stimulating and clarifying to the mind that its secondary action is a matter of small moment.”
It’s obviously a typo. Holmes meant movement, not moment in reference to the second ( # 2) action (obligatory cite) and was using understatement when he characterized it as “small”.
What do I win?
Ah, well that explains it. We invented the language and India has the greatest number of speakers so the linkage runs deep and pure (just look at what the Americans do to the mother tongue…shudder!!)
We haven’t used it in years.
I thought the “secondary action is a matter of small moment” was addiction; of small moment because it took but a few seconds to inject more.
I think that “moment” is being used in its secondary meaning of “importance.”
Yes. I think Conan Doyle did use “moment” intentionally (and correctly).
The “secondary action” may have referred to the addictive properties of the drug, which were known (or becoming known) at the time.