THE 



CAUSATION OF DISEASE, 



P A E T I. 



CHAPTER I. 



GENERAL REMARKS ON CAUSATION. 



Since the chief object of this essay is to inquire into the 

 ultimate causes of disease, it is necessary at the outset to 

 attach a definite meaning to the word Cause. 



There is ,no subject in the whole range of philosophy which 

 has excited greater interest than that of Causation ; but this 

 is not the place to enter fully into it. I propose, therefore, to 

 say only just so much upon it as is needful for a philosophic 

 treatment of the subject in hand, and my remarks on this head 

 will furnish the keynote to the method adopted throughout this 

 work. 



Suppose the question were asked : What is the cause of 

 gravitation ? The reply would be : Gravitation is an ulti- 

 mate and undecomposable property of matter — that is to say, 

 one which cannot be simplified or referred to any wider 

 principle behind or beyond it. It has, therefore, no cause, 

 for cause implies an antecedent, and gravitation has, as far 

 as we know, no antecedent. 



Again, let the questions be asked : What is the cause of 

 uniting, or, in simpler language, why does unite, with H 

 in the proportion to form water ? Why does H unite with 

 CI to form hydrochloric acid? Why, in short, does each 



