SPURIOUS GENERALIZATION. A pkopoesal was made in
April, 1871, by Surgeon Major Cuningham, Sanitary Commissioner with the Government of India, to form an Executive Sanitary Department, without burdening the State with any increased cost, by utilizing the officers and subordinates now employed in vaccination for health purposes. These agents were to undergo a change of name, to inspect and report regarding sanitary matters, and to " to impress on the people the benefits of sanitary reform become, in, fact, sanitary missionaries. This proposal was submitted to the various local governments of the Bengal Presidency and the Inspector-General of Hospitals for report. As the scheme has now been withdrawn, we do not consider it necessary to set forth its pros and cons. There is one part of the correspondence, however, which hits so palpable a blot in much of the that
public
work which emanates from Indian offices
reproducing it. By way of objection that vaccinators are any ignorant body, and not fit to investigate causes of disease, Dr. Cuningham remarked that :?" All that they would be required to do would be to collect facts with as great accuracy as possible, and not frame any theories or generalizations with regard to them." The Inspector-General remarks, and we think very cogently, that in this passage "the collection of facts is evidently meant we
removing
cannot
refrain from
the
to be understood
as
an
easier and inferior kind of exercise than
'generalization.' Now, the truth is," Dr. Brown continues, "that the investigation of facts demands an infinitely higher degree of mental acumen, education, and skill than generalization. The facts once obtained, generalizing is easy, and it is only generalizations, founded on the continuous, laborious, and circumstantial examination of that is of any
use.
an
individual substance,
Generalizations founded
on
or
event,
imperfectly
investigated or inaccurate data are not only not of any use : they are pernicious, and, as imagination must fill in the deficiencies, they are misleading. On the system of the lower intelligence investigating, and the higher generalizing the results, must necessarily be barren, if they are not mischievous, and the more ingenious the generalizing mind the more dangerous the theory." There is a ring of truth about this, and, as Dr. Cuningham makes no effort to comb;it the position, it may be concluded that he acknowledges its force; indeed, in another " part of the same volume of proceedings" from which the above extract has been taken, we find him cautioning the medical officer, who has been appointed by the Government of the Central Provinces to conduct a special enquiry regarding the prevalence and causes of cholera and other diseases in the district of Jabalpur, to defer generalizing until he has obtained a sufficient basis of carefully observed facts. If the choice lies between bad facts and good generalizations, and good facts and bad generalizations, there can be no hesitation in accepting the latter in preference to the former. Of course, good theories, founded on an abundance of good facts, are best, but spurious theories, built on bad facts, whether the latter are inaccurate or incomplete, are, as the Inspector-General points out, both useless and dangerous. A writer in a recent number of the Lancet has indicated the fallacy of converting uncertain data into figures, and applying to these arithmetical processes which, as such, are certain and true. Paraphrasing a shrewd Scottish proverb, we would say?" take care of the facts, and the genera-
Mat 1,
Iizations will take
expect
to
THE ELIMINATION
1872.] get
on
But for all this care of themselves." without generalizing. The process is
we
can't
a neces-
The very names of things The wisest coarse in this as is in other
sary condition of mental exercise are
generalizations.
matters is the middle
might, indeed, plausibly be urged being read lessons in logic: it as an attribute of sound practices good logic thought, and healthy exercise of the brain. Recognizing the value and utility, nay, the absolute necessity of abstracting and that
a
one.
It
well tutored mind lias little need of
generalizing, we should endeavour rather to bridle the mind keep it within bounds by continually feeding the faculty in question with solid observation, than aim at a realism which is, as human beings are constituted, an impossibility.
and
HYPOTHESIS.
113
April, 1871, by Surgeon Major Cuningham, Sanitary Commissioner with the Government of India, to form an Executive Sanitary Department, without burdening the State with any increased cost, by utilizing the officers and subordinates now employed in vaccination for health purposes. These agents were to undergo a change of name, to inspect and report regarding sanitary matters, and to " to impress on the people the benefits of sanitary reform become, in, fact, sanitary missionaries. This proposal was submitted to the various local governments of the Bengal Presidency and the Inspector-General of Hospitals for report. As the scheme has now been withdrawn, we do not consider it necessary to set forth its pros and cons. There is one part of the correspondence, however, which hits so palpable a blot in much of the that
public
work which emanates from Indian offices
reproducing it. By way of objection that vaccinators are any ignorant body, and not fit to investigate causes of disease, Dr. Cuningham remarked that :?" All that they would be required to do would be to collect facts with as great accuracy as possible, and not frame any theories or generalizations with regard to them." The Inspector-General remarks, and we think very cogently, that in this passage "the collection of facts is evidently meant we
removing
cannot
refrain from
the
to be understood
as
an
easier and inferior kind of exercise than
'generalization.' Now, the truth is," Dr. Brown continues, "that the investigation of facts demands an infinitely higher degree of mental acumen, education, and skill than generalization. The facts once obtained, generalizing is easy, and it is only generalizations, founded on the continuous, laborious, and circumstantial examination of that is of any
use.
an
individual substance,
Generalizations founded
on
or
event,
imperfectly
investigated or inaccurate data are not only not of any use : they are pernicious, and, as imagination must fill in the deficiencies, they are misleading. On the system of the lower intelligence investigating, and the higher generalizing the results, must necessarily be barren, if they are not mischievous, and the more ingenious the generalizing mind the more dangerous the theory." There is a ring of truth about this, and, as Dr. Cuningham makes no effort to comb;it the position, it may be concluded that he acknowledges its force; indeed, in another " part of the same volume of proceedings" from which the above extract has been taken, we find him cautioning the medical officer, who has been appointed by the Government of the Central Provinces to conduct a special enquiry regarding the prevalence and causes of cholera and other diseases in the district of Jabalpur, to defer generalizing until he has obtained a sufficient basis of carefully observed facts. If the choice lies between bad facts and good generalizations, and good facts and bad generalizations, there can be no hesitation in accepting the latter in preference to the former. Of course, good theories, founded on an abundance of good facts, are best, but spurious theories, built on bad facts, whether the latter are inaccurate or incomplete, are, as the Inspector-General points out, both useless and dangerous. A writer in a recent number of the Lancet has indicated the fallacy of converting uncertain data into figures, and applying to these arithmetical processes which, as such, are certain and true. Paraphrasing a shrewd Scottish proverb, we would say?" take care of the facts, and the genera-
Mat 1,
Iizations will take
expect
to
THE ELIMINATION
1872.] get
on
But for all this care of themselves." without generalizing. The process is
we
can't
a neces-
The very names of things The wisest coarse in this as is in other
sary condition of mental exercise are
generalizations.
matters is the middle
might, indeed, plausibly be urged being read lessons in logic: it as an attribute of sound practices good logic thought, and healthy exercise of the brain. Recognizing the value and utility, nay, the absolute necessity of abstracting and that
a
one.
It
well tutored mind lias little need of
generalizing, we should endeavour rather to bridle the mind keep it within bounds by continually feeding the faculty in question with solid observation, than aim at a realism which is, as human beings are constituted, an impossibility.
and
HYPOTHESIS.
113
