Holmes, pre-dating the Internet

From The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes:

For many years he had adopted a system of docketing all paragraphs concerning men and things, so that it was difficult to name a subject or a person on which he could not at once furnish information. In this case I found Irene Adler's biography sandwiched in between that of a Hebrew rabbi and that of a staff-commander who had written a monograph upon the deep-sea fishes.

Rico says the man was brilliant, but now everyone can be, with just a mouse click...