In Science, The Best Precept Is To

It Is What We Know Already That Often Prevents Us From Learning.

We Achieve More Than We Know. We Know More Than We Understand. We Understand More Than We Can Explain.

I Do Not ... Reject The Use Of Statistics In Medicine, But I Condemn Not Trying To Get Beyond Them And Believing In Statistics As The Foundation Of Medical Science. ... Statistics ... Apply Only To Cases In Which The Cause Of The Facts Observed Is Still [uncertain Or] Indeterminate. ... There Will Always Be Some Indeterminism ... In All The Sciences, And More In Medicine Than In Any Other. But Man's Intellectual Conquest Consists In Lessening And Driving Back Indeterminism In Proportion As He Gains Ground For Determinism By The Help Of The Experimental Method.

The Great Experimental Principle, Then, Is Doubt, That Philosophic Doubt Which Leaves To The Mind Its Freedom And Initiative, And From Which The Virtues Most Valuable To Investigators In Physiology And Medicine Are Derived.

The Stability Of The Internal Medium Is A Primary Condition For The Freedom And Independence Of Certain Living Bodies In Relation To The Environment Surrounding Them.