<P> He has the tidiest and most orderly brain, with the greatest capacity for storing facts, of any man living . The same great powers which I have turned to the detection of crime he has used for this particular business . The conclusions of every department are passed to him, and he is the central exchange, the clearinghouse, which makes out the balance . All other men are specialists, but his specialism is omniscience . We will suppose that a minister needs information as to a point which involves the Navy, India, Canada and the bimetallic question; he could get his separate advices from various departments upon each, but only Mycroft can focus them all, and say offhand how each factor would affect the other . They began by using him as a short - cut, a convenience; now he has made himself an essential . In that great brain of his everything is pigeon - holed and can be handed out in an instant . </P> <P> Mycroft appears or is mentioned in four stories by Doyle: "The Greek Interpreter", "The Final Problem", "The Empty House" and "The Bruce - Partington Plans". While he does occasionally exert himself in these stories on behalf of his brother, he on the whole remains a sedentary problem - solver, providing solutions based on seemingly no evidence and trusting Sherlock to handle any of the practical details . In fact, Mycroft's own lack of practicality is a severe handicap despite his inductive talents: in "The Greek Interpreter", his blundering approach to the case nearly costs the client his life . </P> <P> Mycroft resembles Sherlock, but is described in "The Greek Interpreter" as being "a much larger and stouter man". In "The Bruce - Partington Plans", the following description is given: </P> <P> Heavily built and massive, there was a suggestion of uncouth physical inertia in the figure, but above this unwieldy frame there was perched a head so masterful in its brow, so alert in its steel - grey, deep - set eyes, so firm in its lips, and so subtle in its play of expression, that after the first glance one forgot the gross body and remembered only the dominant mind . </P>

Name of the famous novel that sherlock holmes appeared in