On the method of induction and its results in medical science : a lecture, read as introductory to the opening of the medical classes of King's College, London, October 1, 1836 / by Robert Ferguson.

  • Ferguson, Robert, 1799-1865.
Date:
[1836]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the method of induction and its results in medical science : a lecture, read as introductory to the opening of the medical classes of King's College, London, October 1, 1836 / by Robert Ferguson. 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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    inquiry into the connexions which they may exhibit with regard to each other. When thus disciplined you are prepared for ob- serving. But observation is one of the most difficult of processes. In the first place, the facts to be as- certained are often very complex, and those of medi- cine particularly difficult to unravel. Then, again, our observing faculties are deceitful, and the mind interpolates views which nature never offered ; and if, to correct these sources of error, we resort to the experience of others, the appeal may still be made to faculties as deceitful, and judgments not less erro- neous than our own. Neither attention, perseverance, nor a minute spirit of inquiry, nor dexterity—although all are most pre- cious gifts—will produce a rigorous or exact obser- vation. They have all been exerted in the pursuit of the solemn frivolities, as strenuously as of the solid discoveries of science. What then constitutes the true method of inquiry ? This is a question which concerns us all most nearly ; and I have in vain sought for a subject more worthy of the student’s attention, than the investigation of those laws of observation by means of which alone truth can be attained. That there is a right and a wrong method of observing, is evident, since mankind have always observed, but rarely discovered. Some have referred to experience as the just me- thod of right observation, understanding by expe-