FALLACIES OF OBSERVATION. 



where it is to remain until the patient 

 is cured ; but mark — during this in- 

 terval he calls to his aid the most 

 active medicines in the materia me- 

 dica." * 



In other cases the cures really pro- 

 duced by rest, regimen, and amuse- 

 ment, have been ascribed to the 

 medicinal, or occasionally to the su- 

 pernatural, means which were put 

 in requisition. "The celebrated John 

 Wesley, while he commemorates the 

 triumph of sulphur and supplication 

 over his bodily infirmity, fors^ets to 

 appreciate the resuscitating influence 

 of four months' repose from his apos- 

 tolic labours ; and such is the disposi- 

 tion of the human mind to place con- 

 fidence in the operation of mysterious 

 agents, that we find him more dis- 

 posed to attribute his cure to a brown 

 paper plaister of egg and brimstone, 

 than to Dr. Fothergiirs salutary pre- 

 scription of country air, rest, asses' 

 milk, and liorse exercise." + 



In the following example, the cir- 

 cumstance overlooked was of a some- 

 what different character. "When 

 the yellow fever raged in America, 

 the practitioners trusted exclusively 

 to the copious use of mercury ; at 

 first this plan was deemed so univers- 

 ally efficacious, that, in the enthusiasm 

 of the moment, it was triumphantly 

 proclaimed that death never took 

 place after the mercury had evinced 

 its effect upon the system ; all this 

 was very true, but it furnished no 

 proof of the efficacy of that metal, 

 since the disease in its aggravated 

 form was so rapid in its career, that 

 it swept away its victims long before 

 the system could be brought under 

 mercurial influence, while in its milder 

 shape it passed off equally well with- 

 out any assistance from art." t 



In these examples the circumstance 

 overlooked was cognisable by the 

 senses. In other cases, it is one the 

 knowledge of which could only be 

 arrived at by reasoning ; but the 



* Pharmacologia, p. 38. 

 t Jbid., p. 62. 

 t Jbid., p. 6i-6». 



fallacy may still be classed under 

 the head to which, for want of a 

 more appropriate name, we have given 

 the appellation Fallacies of Non -ob- 

 servation. It is not the nature of 

 the faculties which ought to ha\ e been 

 employed, but the non-employment of 

 them, which constitutes this Natural 

 Order of Fallacies. Wherever the 

 error is negative, not positive ; wher- 

 ever it consists especially in overlook- 

 ing, in being ignorant or unmindful 

 of some fact which, if known and 

 attended to, would have made a differ- 

 ence in the conclusion arrived at ; 

 the error is properly placed in the 

 class which we are considering. In 

 this class there is not, as in all other 

 fallacies there is, a positive mis-esti- 

 mate of evidence actually had. The 

 conclusion would be just, if the por- 

 tion which is seen of the case were 

 the whole of it ; but there is another 

 portion overlooked, which vitiates the 

 result. 



For instance, there is a remarkable 

 doctrine which has occasionally found 

 a vent in the public speeches of un- 

 wise legislators, but which only in 

 one instance that I am aware of has 

 received the sanction of a philosophi- 

 cal writer, namely M. Cousin, who in 

 his preface to the Gorgias of Plato, 

 contending that punishment must 

 have some other and higher justifi- 

 cation than the prevention of crime, 

 makes use of this argument— that if 

 punishment were only for the sake 

 of example, it would be indifferent 

 whether we punished the innocent or 

 the guilty, since the punishment, con- 

 sidered as an example, is equally effi- 

 cacious in either case. Now we must, 

 in order to go along with this reason- 

 ing, suppose, that the person who 

 feels himself under temptation, ob- 

 serving somebody punished, concludes 

 himself to be in danger of being 

 punished likewise, and is terrified ac- 

 cordingly. But it is forgotten that 

 if the person punished is supposed to 

 be innocent, or even if there be any 

 doubt of his guilt, the spectator will 

 reflect that his own danger, whatever 



