1831.] 



Domestic and Foreign. 



333 



tempt omissions and defects; but the 

 first and indispensable step to complete, 

 ness is accomplished. A place and re- 

 pository is thus prepared for every spot 

 that can require recording, and numbers 

 will be ready to lend the industrious 

 compiler a helping and correcting hand. 



Inquiries concerning the Intellectual 

 Powers and the Investigation of Truth, by 

 John Abercrombie, M.D. Dr. Abercrom- 

 bie is a philosopher of the Scotch 

 school, but of the better part of that 

 school eschewing religiously all specu- 

 lations and theories, and, with the cool- 

 ness and steadiness of a modern chemist, 

 thoroughly sifting his facts, and reject- 

 ing all inferences but such as force 

 themselves upon his conviction beyond 

 all doubt or question. His ultimate ob- 

 ject he is a physician' of respectability, 

 at Edinburgh - is to bring the results of 

 his metaphysics to bear upon medical 

 investigations convinced, apparently, 

 that the doctors as yet are all abroad, 

 simply because they neither know what 

 a medical fact is, nor on what evidence 

 it really rests. The great lesson he in- 

 culcates is, not to precipitate conclu- 

 sions but watch and observe, and pa- 

 tiently gather and accumulate, and con- 

 clude only when you cannot help mak- 

 ing conclusions. 



The immediate object of all science 

 is to trace uniform relations. In abstract 

 science, this is comparatively easy, and 

 almost equally so in physical science ; 

 but when we come to medicine, for 

 instance, or politics notoriously the 

 two most uncertain things in existence 

 they are mixed up with matters which 

 are neither under our control, nor within 

 our knowledge, and the results are pro- 

 portionally unsteady and fallacious not 

 from their nature, but from our igno- 

 rance of the modus operandi. In medi- 

 cine, we have to deal with life, about 

 which we know nothing ; and in politics, 

 with passions and prejudices, about 

 which we can calculate with no cer- 

 tainty. 



This distinction Dr. Abercrombie ex- 

 hibits very clearly in the introductory 

 portion of his book after which he dis- 

 cusses the " extent of our knowledge of 

 mind," which is obviously limited to 

 facts of observation ; next, he inquires 

 where we get our knowledge of facts 

 relative to both matter and mind and 

 the answer is, " from sensation, con- 

 sciousness, and testimony" each of 

 which sources of the said knowledge is 

 stated with perfect clearness and sound 

 discretion. What Scotch metaphysi- 

 cians call the operations of the intellect, 

 come next under his survey memory, 

 abstraction, imagination, and judgment 

 not arguing as if they were the acts 

 of distinct faculties that would be hy- 



pothetical, and the very thing he care- 

 fully avoids but regarding them simply 

 as distinguishable mental processes. The 

 last, reason or judgment, is treated of 

 at considerable length, especially as to 

 its specific use in investigating truth, 

 and in correcting erroneous and imper- 

 fect impressions from external things. 

 Dreaming, somnambulism, and insanity 

 fall within the province of the latter 

 office insanity is but a kind of dream- 

 ing, and both involve a diminution of 

 power in estimating or controlling im- 

 pressions. 



With these definite and sober views 

 of the powers and objects of the human 

 mind, hu proceeds now to apply them to 

 the investigation of medical science. In 

 three sections on the acquisition and 

 reception of facts on arranging, com- 

 bining, and separating them and on 

 tracing the relations of cause and effect 

 he gives the result of his metaphysical 

 principles and personal convictions. 

 These are full of sound sense and inva- 

 luable cautions but yet such as a plain 

 understanding suggests at once, without 

 so elaborate a piece of machinery. In 

 collecting medical facts, these are the 

 errors to be chiefly guarded against 

 receiving them on the testimony of 

 persons of doubtful veracity, or who, 

 we may suspect, have an interest in dis- 

 guising or colouring receiving them on 

 the testimony of persons whose oppor- 

 tunities of information, or powers or ha- 

 bits of observation, are questionable-- 

 partial statements, bearing upon one 

 view of a thing, or collected in support 

 of a particular doctrine receiving, 

 again, as facts, on which important con. 

 elusions are to rest, circumstances which 

 are trivial, incidental, or foreign to the 

 subject above all, receiving as facts 

 what are no facts at all statements 

 which are not facts, but opinions or 

 which only assume the relation of facts 

 or which are nothing but the generali- 

 zation of facts. For instance a person 

 dies affected with a certain set of symp- 

 toms, and, on examination after death, 

 are found the usual appearances of hy- 

 drocephalus. Another is seized with 

 similar symptoms, and recovers. Then 

 he recovers from hydrocephalus, does he 

 not? No; his recovery from certain 

 symptoms is a facthis recovery from 

 hydrocephalus is not a fact, but an 

 opinion. Again and a very common 

 case a person recovers from a particular 

 disease while using a particular remedy. 

 Forthwith, as a medical fact, the reco- 

 very is ascribed to the remedy. But 

 here the only facts are the patient's re- 

 covery, and the use of a remedy but 

 the connection of the remedy with the 

 recovery is not made out, and, at all 

 events, is not to be lightly assumed. 

 The action of external agents whe- 



