Too hasty generalization a hindrance to the progress of medicine as a science : an introductory address delivered before the North London Medical Society, at the commencement of the session 1855-6 / by Charles J. Hare.

  • Hare, Charles John.
Date:
1855
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Too hasty generalization a hindrance to the progress of medicine as a science : an introductory address delivered before the North London Medical Society, at the commencement of the session 1855-6 / by Charles J. Hare. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    valuable the facts may be for the deductions of some other conclusions) renders them incapable of yielding. Many things, said Dr. Reid, in his Essays on the Intellectual Poivers^ called de- ceptions of the. senses, are only conclusions rashly drawn from the testimony of the senses. In these cases the testimony of the senses is true, but we rashly draw a conclusion from it which does not necessarily follow. We are disposed to impute our errors rather to false information than to in- conclusive reasoning, and to blame our senses for the wrong conclusions we draw from the testi- mony. Many examples illustrative of this, will at once present themselves to the mind:—A patient, let us suppose, comes for an opinion relative to some pulmonary complaint with which he believes himself affected; his chest is examined, and under one clavicle especially there is found dullness on percussion, increased fremitus, and vocal resonance with decided bronchial respiration, and we will suppose, if you please, no other physical tokens of disease. Suppose again that from these signs it was concluded the patient suf- fered under tubercles of the lungs, but that at a subsequent period it was proved that the patient was free from such disease, though there did exist consolidation of the part of the lungs indicated, from disease of another kind. Under these circum- stances, were the observer to throw the blame of