Sequel to Outlines of medical proof / [Thomas Mayo].

  • Mayo, Thomas, 1790-1871
Date:
1849
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Sequel to Outlines of medical proof / [Thomas Mayo]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    causes suggest will be fanciful. Their propounder, indeed, if lie rightly understand their use, will view them, conformably to the expression of Sydenham, only as subservient to a more vivid illustration of his ideas. I have observed, in the “ Outlines of Medical Proof,” that in this latter point of view a gratuitous hypothesis may be useful, or even essential, as an exponent of certain researches. “No definite idea,” I remark,* “ could be conveyed by description of the cogitata et visa of microscopical physiologists, either to themselves or others, unless in expressing them they had assumed a theory of uses and purposes.” But, while I contend for the value of gratuitous hypothesis in such respects, I must express a suspicion that these philosophers are not always sufficiently cautious as to the extent of proof which they consider it to afford. Nor am I sa¬ tisfied on this point by their occasional admissions of the speculative character of their researches. “ It is by the special vital activity of individual cells,” says Dr. Addison, “ and of all the visible particles compos¬ ing their structures, that the secretions are produced.”! Surely some modifying terms are wanted here expres¬ sive of the total absence of all the reallv explanatorv ingredient of causation, under which this assignment of * Pages 19, 20. ■f This passage is taken by me out of a long paragraph. My reader will readily ascertain, by referring to the original work, whether I have done it injustice in calling it a gratuitous hypo¬ thesis, in spite of the ingenious matter which accompanies it, in that and the preceding paragraph.—See Experimental Researches on Secretion, by W. Addison, F.L.S., page 22.