Well, first of all, we know from the stories about the great detective that he had an extensive knowledge

of chemistry. While still in college, Holmes spent about two months experimenting in organic chemistry
in London ("Gloria Scott"). Then he studied at the university, and at his leisure replenished knowledge
that could be useful to him in his future profession ("The Rite of the House of Musgraves"). Also, for
some time, Holmes worked as a laboratory assistant in one of the London hospitals. That is how
Watson's colleague described him at the very beginning of A Study in Scarlet.

“One guy who works in the chemical laboratory at our hospital ... I think he knows anatomy very well,
and he is a first-class chemist, but it seems that he never studied medicine systematically.”

The great detective had an original knowledge of chemistry, but he did science haphazardly and either
did not look into the laboratory for weeks, or hung around there from morning to evening. He had such
a passion for accurate and reliable knowledge that some considered him obsessed with science. He
constantly conducts risky chemical experiments in his apartment, often filling it with suffocating or fetid
fumes. Here are a couple more excerpts from the same Etude.

“Poisons, handwriting, stains, dust, footprints, traces of wheels, the shape and position of wounds, the
theory of cryptograms — all these and other excellent methods which germinated in Conan Doyle’s
fertile imagination are now part and parcel of every detective’s scientific equipment.”

Fingerprint

Holmes was quick to realize the value of fingerprint evidence. The first case in which fingerprints are
mentioned is The Sign of the Four (1890); Scotland Yard did not begin to use fingerprints until 1901.
Thirty-six years later in the 55th story, “The Adventure of the Three Gables” (1926), fingerprints still
figure in detection. In “The Adventure of the Norwood Builder” (1903), the appearance of a fingerprint is
the key piece of evidence in the solution of the crime. It is interesting to note that Conan Doyle chose to
have Holmes use fingerprints but not Bertillonage (also called anthropometry), the system of
identification invented by Alphonse Bertillon in Paris that pivoted on measuring 12 characteristics of the
body. The two methods competed for forensic ascendancy for many years. By having Holmes use
fingerprints rather than Bertillonage, the astute Conan Doyle picked the method with the soundest
scientific future.

https://www.chemistry.ge/publication/compoundchem/view.php?id=30

https://www.britannica.com/topic/Sherlock-Holmes-Pioneer-in-Forensic-Science-1976713

https://blog.oup.com/2013/09/six-methods-forensic-detection-sherlock-holmes/

http://surrey-shore.freeservers.com/HolmChem.htm