HYPOTHESIS 



which the experiment was founded was quite false because 

 this effect was still obtained even after the vagus had been 

 severed. He again showed his capacity to abandon the original 

 reasoning and followed the new clue. In telling this story he 

 said : 



"We must never be too absorbed by the thought we are 

 pursuing," 



This investigation has also interest from another point of view. 

 After his first success in producing diabetes by puncturing the 

 fourth ventricle he had great trouble in repeating it and only 

 succeeded after he had ascertained the exact technique necessary. 

 He was indeed fortunate in succeeding in the first attempt, for 

 otherwise after faiUng two or three times he would have aban- 

 doned the idea. 



** We wish to draw from this experiment another general 

 conclusion . . . negative facts when considered alone never teach 

 us anything. How often must man have been and still must be 

 wrong in this way? It even seems impossible absolutely to avoid 

 this kind of mistake." ^^ 



Towards the end of the last century nothing was known about 

 the nature and cause of the condition in cows known as milk 

 fever. There was no treatment of any value, and many valuable 

 animals died of it. A veterinarian named Schmidt in Kolding, 

 Denmark, formed an hypothesis that it was an auto-intoxication 

 due to absorption of "colostrum corpuscles and degenerated 

 old epithelial cells" from the udder. So, with the object of 

 "checking the formation of colostral milk and paralysing any 

 existing poison" he treated cases by injecting a solution of 

 potassium iodide into the udder. At first he said that a small 

 amount of air entering the udder during the operation was 

 beneficial because it helped the Hberation of free iodine. The 

 treatment was strikingly successful. Later he regarded the 

 injection of copious amounts of air along with the solution as an 

 important part of the treatment, on the ground that the air 

 made it possible to massage the solution into all parts of the 

 udder. The treatment was adopted widely and modified in 

 various ways and soon it was found that the injection of air 

 alone was quite as effective. This treatment based on a false idea 



43 



