Page:Greek Biology and Medicine.djvu/151

 LINKAGE WITH THE MODERN TIME What man who desires to account for things as obscure as disease, or to accomplish so diffi- cult a task as its cure, can avoid framing a working hypothesis in his mind? He may come to admire and rely on his h3rpothesis till it grows into a comprehensive explanation, a compelling theory, of life and disease. Any rational means of cure, transcending the groping of haphazard empiricism, must conform to this theory. His working hypothesis was, to be sure, suggested by some facts of obser- vation. But from their child it may become their master. In that case it will be apt to deflect observation, and may cause the ob- server to see only facts that accord with it. In pure or abstract science a good hypothesis or theory should account for the facts ob- served ; and new facts may undo it. Till those new facts appear, there may be no call to re- consider the theory, or use it practically. But medicine, on the other hand, is essentially a practice, a healing art. Its function is to cure the sick. The general appearance and conduct of living beings suggests some conception of life and some idea of the disturbance called dis- ease. This idea may carry a notion of the [129]