An examination of the Report of the Commissioners to enquire into the mortality of the Army / by Alfred Aspland.

  • Alfred Aspland
Date:
[1859]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An examination of the Report of the Commissioners to enquire into the mortality of the Army / by Alfred Aspland. 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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    An Examination of the Report of the Commissioners to Enquire into the Mortality of the Army. By Alfred Aspland, F.E.C.S. [Read April 25th, 1859.] In estimating the value of Statistics in the present day, we must consider them in relation to the metaphysical tendencies now prevalent. Metaphysics have always been tile bane of science, and their invasion on the domain of Positive Philosophy is the dreariest sign of the times. As an Edinburgh Reviewer has observed, where men formerly expended their energy on scholastic quibbles they now compile statistics, evincing a mental disease, which may be termed the colliquative diarrhoea of the intellect, indicating a strong appetite and a weak digestion. Were a true method observed in their culture, this denunciation would fall harmless, and statistics would rise to a dignity hitherto unknown. as our imperfect powers of observation will allow,—the Inductive method—'the text you will say for all statistical enquirers, and if you change the word induction, in its common acceptation, for inductive method, you are right. The one is a simple inference, the other a tedious and complicated succession of inferences. The one may arrive at truth by accident, the other must in time eradicate error. The metaphysical aptitudes of our nation have robbed Bacon of his true place,—his philosophy is taught in none of our English universities, and scientific enquiries have A method there is, as s comprehensive, capable of working out the difficult problem of vital statistics as exactly