Outlines of medical proof ; with remarks on its application to certain forms of irregular medicine / by Thomas Mayo.

  • Mayo, Thomas, 1790-1871.
Date:
1850
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Outlines of medical proof ; with remarks on its application to certain forms of irregular medicine / by Thomas Mayo. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

    91/106 page 77
    appendix. Note i. (p. 5). In medical language these expressions are used almost con- vertibly. An hypothesis might perhaps justly be called an inchoate theory. According to Mr. S. Mills, it is any sup- position which we make, either without actual evidence, or upon evidence confessedly insufficient, in order to endeavour to deduce from it conclusions in accordance with facts wjiich are known to be real; under the idea that if the conclusions to which the hypothesis leads are known truths, the hyjio- thesis either must be or is likely to be true.'’^—Page 10, Yol. II. When proved to be either true or highly probable, by having been subjected to a ])rocess of induction, it is called a theory : and thus a general proposition may be the theory established by one induction, and the hypothesis to a second one; e. rj. the experiments of Poiseuille on the permeability of capillary tubes by fluids, tend to a theory that it bears a direct proportion to the viscidity of the fluids. These experiments and their results may be used as an hypo- thesis, affii-ming the tendency of such remedies or diet as diminish the fibrin of the blood, whereon its viscidity depends, to promote cerebral extravasation by increasing the vis a tergo impressed on the circulation. Note ii. (p. 57). The distinction between these terms applies more to the maimer of treating the subject than to ditferences in the
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