The Adventure of the Speckled Band the snake wrong, a theory that the swamp adder was an artificial hybrid between the Mexican Gila monster ("Heloderma suspectum") and "Naja naja". His speculation suggests that Doyle might have hidden a double-meaning in Holmes' words. What Holmes said, reported by Watson, was "It is a swamp adder, the deadliest snake in India"; but Klauber suggested what Holmes really said was "It is a "samp-aderm", the deadliest skink in India." "Samp-aderm" can be translated "snake-Gila-monster": "Samp" is Hindi for snake, and the suffix "aderm" is derived from "heloderm", the common or vernacular name of the Gila monster generally used by
The Adventure of the Speckled Band The Adventure of the Speckled Band "The Adventure of the Speckled Band" is one of the 56 short Sherlock Holmes stories written by Scottish author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. It is the eighth of the twelve stories collected in "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes". It is one of four Sherlock Holmes stories that can be classified as a locked room mystery. The story was first published in "Strand Magazine" in February 1892, with illustrations by Sidney Paget. It was published under the different title "The Spotted Band" in "New York World" in August 1905. Doyle later revealed that he thought