454 PHYSIOLOGICAL KEGULATIONS 



Very often speculations are not distinguished from conclusions. 

 Here they are separated in some degree, and what relations are 

 lost by the separations may be compensated in part by the alter- 

 native segregations. 



§ 165. Distinctions between" geneealizations 



AND theories 



Occasionally an induction is rigorously arrived at, yet no one, 

 least of all its author, can trace the steps in its path and the facts 

 that support it. Then the induction appears as a guess, undistin- 

 guished from all the other speculations with which scientific work 

 is littered. It, like any theory, awaits the clear recording of its 

 foundations and evidences, before its provisional nature can be 

 dispelled. Perhaps that was the case with the generalization 

 called physiological regulation, in the mind of Bernard, or of 

 Pfliiger, or of Haldane ; but I cannot prove it. 



In an age in which novelty is often the criterion of scientific 

 value, it is necessary to point out that most inductions are built 

 upon data already familiar. The broader or more general corre- 

 lation, however, is now accounted boresome, because it reconsiders 

 data either long familiar or forgotten. It is even implied that old 

 material is merely being reclothed in new words and symbols ; this 

 is a leering characterization of the inductive process. The induc- 

 tive scientist values the uniform relations among the facts more 

 than he values the decent burial heretofore accorded to the facts. 

 No doubt the descriptive physiologist also finds some satisfaction 

 in the novelties (a) of discovering that separate phenomena resem- 

 ble or relate to one another, and (b) of ascertaining the intensities 

 of diverse correlations. He it is who is producing the generaliza- 

 tions of physiology. 



For comparison with the generalization that organisms have 

 specific means of physiological self-maintenance, it is useful to 

 ask: what are the most widespread features of animal function? 

 What are some of the other broad generalizations of physiology? 

 It seems plain that they are not the statements of compartmented 

 physiology, where muscle knows nothing of gland or blood. My 

 guess is that they are the rules that organisms have stationary 

 states (Lavoisier), quantal activities (Aristotle, Liebig), correla- 

 tion among activities (Galen), and non-contradiction with inorganic 

 systems (Erasistratus, Wohler, J. R. Mayer). It seems a waste 



