LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON HOWE. 9 



before the Birmingham Branch of the British Med- 

 ical Association, made the following remarks : ' There 

 is another condition of our work in the treatment of 

 disease, about which there has been much misconcep- 

 tion, but about which we can scarcely miss agreement, 

 if we weigh the case carefully. It is this : whether 

 we like it or not we must be mainly empirics in our 

 practice. We must not be above being empirics. I 

 do not mean empiricism in any bad sense of the word. 

 I do not mean that there is any real opposition be- 

 tween true empiricism and scientific practice. The 

 great bulk of our therapeutic knowledge is as yet 

 empirical, and as empirics, though as rational and 

 scientific ones, we must administer it. By this em- 

 piricism I mean, and mean only, a knowledge which 

 grows from and with experience, and which is in this 

 sense empiric, however scientifically it be applied. In 

 much of our therapeutic work it is experience which 

 prompts our action whilst experience alone can test 

 our results. Much of what we do, we can not ex- 

 plain in the scientific meaning of the word explana- 

 tion, so we lean upon experience, and trust with 

 an empiric faith much that we know to be true, 

 though we can not understand it.' ... In em- 

 pirical trials let us be reasonably bold ; not be rash, 

 yet not be cowardly. The distinguishing character- 

 istic of a surgeon is courage, willingness to assume 

 a risk." 



u Rational medicine alone is to prevail. In scien- 

 tific matters school has no place. There will always 

 be shades of belief in undeveloped science, but they 

 necessarily fade under the blaze of demonstrated 

 truth." 



Dr. Howe wrote for publication early in his pro- 



