Anecdotal trivia
Of course, the facts of this story are hard to verify, but it is still worth a mention.
One of the people consulted on the real-life case of Jack the Ripper, was eminent surgeon and lecturer Dr Joseph Bell.
Despite all his own personal achievements, Bell is most remembered nowadays for being the mentor to medical student Arthur Conan Doyle and the inspiration for Sherlock Holmes.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Bell
A slightly gruesome Canadian documentary on the topic can be found here:
http://video.google.ca/videoplay?docid=-6874005371653227293