400 INDUCTION. 



and the remaining conditions. But although we may 

 think proper to give the name of cause to that one 

 condition, the fulfilment of which completes the tale, 

 and brings about the effect without further delay ; this 

 condition has really no closer relation to the effect 

 than any of the other conditions has. The production 

 of the consequent required that they should all exist 

 immediately previous^ though not that they should all 

 begin to exist immediately previous. The statement 

 of the cause is incomplete, unless in some shape or 

 other we introduce all the conditions. A man takes 

 mercury, goes out of doors, and catches cold. We 

 say, perhaps, that the cause of his taking cold was 

 exposure to the air. It is clear, however, that his 

 having taken mercury may have been a necessary 

 condition of his catching cold ; and though it might 

 consist with usage to say that the cause of his attack 

 was exposure to the air, to be accurate we ought to 

 say that the cause was exposure to the air while under 

 the effect of mercury. 



If we do not, when aiming at accuracy, enumerate 

 all the conditions, it is only because some of them 

 will in most cases be understood without being 

 expressed, or because for the purpose in view they 

 may without detriment be overlooked. For exam- 

 ple, when we say, the cause of a man's death was 

 that his foot slipped in climbing a ladder, we omit 

 as a* thing unnecessary to be stated the circum- 

 stance of his weight, though quite as indispensable 

 a condition of the effect which took place. When 

 we say that the assent of the crown to a bill 

 makes it law, we mean that the assent, being never 

 given until all the other conditions are fulfilled, makes 

 up the sum of the conditions, although no one now 

 regards it as the principal one. When the decision 



