SECT. 23.] Induction. 223 



tistical tables apply to his case, but they would lead us to 

 directly contradictory conclusions. This does not mean, of 

 course, contradictory precisely in the logical sense of that 

 word, for one of these propositions does not assert that an 

 event must happen and the other deny that it must ; but 

 contradictory in the sense that one would cause us in some 

 considerable degree to believe what the other would cause us 

 in some considerable degree to disbelieve. This refers, of 

 course, to the individual events ; the statistics are by suppo 

 sition in no degree contradictory. Without further data, 

 therefore, we can come to no decision. 



23. Practically, of course, if we were forced to a deci 

 sion with only these data before us, we should make our 

 choice by the consideration that the state of a man s lungs 

 has probably more to do with his health than the place of 

 his birth has ; that is, we should conclude that the duration 

 of life of consumptive Englishmen corresponds much more 

 closely with that of consumptive persons in general than 

 with that of their healthy countrymen. But this is, of 

 course, to import empirical considerations into the question. 

 The data, as they are given to us, and if we confine our 

 selves to them, leave us in absolute uncertainty upon the 

 point. It may be that the consumptive Englishmen almost 

 all die when transported into the other climate ; it may be 

 that they almost all recover. If they die, this is in obvious 

 accordance with the first set of statistics ; it will be found in 

 accordance with the second set through the fact of the 

 foreign consumptives profiting by the change of climate in 

 more than what might be termed their due proportion. 

 A similar explanation will apply to the other alternative, 

 viz. to the supposition that the consumptive Englishmen 

 mostly recover. The problem is, therefore, left absolutely 

 indeterminate, for we cannot here appeal to any general rule 



