Hygiene of nerves and mind in health and disease / by August Forel ; authorised translation from the second German edition by Herbert Austin Aikins.

  • Forel, Auguste, 1848-1931.
Date:
1907
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Hygiene of nerves and mind in health and disease / by August Forel ; authorised translation from the second German edition by Herbert Austin Aikins. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.

    38/374 (page 18)
    servation of energy, which says: In the known world of phenomena nothing comes from nothing, and no atom, no spark of energy, is ever lost. Consequently, when something apparently disappears or originates it is only a question of a change of place (movement) or a change of quality. Every form of energy is transformed into another, or arises from another through action and reaction. The former is called a cause, the latter an effect. Instead of cause and effect we might quite as well say action and reaction. We judge apparently in two ways, inductively and deductively. In an inductive inference, or one based on analogy, we reason from the frequent con- junction or the peculiar concatenation of certain phenomena to their more intimate causal connection. Example: We have seen time and again that apple trees blossom in the spring, and that from the blos- soms little apples are developed which ripen in the autumn. We conclude from this that apples grow on the trees which we learn in this way to call apple trees and not on pines, even though we see them hanging on the latter at Christmas celebrations; and that if we plant an apple tree it will sometime give us apples. Again, if some one has lied to us every day for a year we conclude from this that he will lie to us in the future also, and we do not trust him. But we must note at once, in the first place, that inference from analogy has very indifferent value and can only be made to give a probability bordering on cer- tainty through the most extreme caution and careful