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

  • Thomas Mayo
Date:
1849
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

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

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    this, as in other pursuits, there may be intellects so constituted, as to work by a principle of natural dia¬ lectics more effectually than under cultivation. Such cases of each kind are, I believe, rare. It may with more reason be expected that time will be lost, abor¬ tive discussions engaged in, results erroneously assumed, experiments be confounded with observation, the abuse of theory mistaken for its use, and thus, vast piles of thought and inquiry be raised upon insecure founda¬ tions, if our attention should at no time be called to the specialties of our medical reasoning. And yet few will venture to assert, that this kind of inquiry had been carried out, when I propounded an essay on the Outlines of Medical Proof. Now, with respect to the filling up of these Outlines, the task may be attempted by a methodical expansion of each of the heads of the subject, or by detached essays, in which medical subjects may be contemplated in relation to the rules and principles which I have there ventured to lay down. With respect to the first of these two ways, if great works did not exist in our language on the logic of induction and deduction, which render my task one of detecting specialties in our manner of proof, rather than of embracing the whole subject of proof,—if Sir John Herscliel, Mr. Mill, and Dr. Whewell, had not laid out this whole subject, the more comprehensive and methodical pro¬ cedure might be preferable. It might be requisite that the general inquiry should precede the particular one.
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