First cause

“ We have already seen that a difficulty of the same kind, which arises in the contemplation of causes and effects considered as forming an historical series, drives us to the assumption of a First Cause, as an Axiom 252 to which our Idea of Causation in time necessarily leads. ”

“ But it may be said, we have not any such Idea of Cause, implying necessary connexion with effect, and a quality by which this connexion is produced. 176 We see nothing but the succession of events; and by cause we mean nothing but a certain succession of events;—namely, a constant, unvarying succession. Cause and effect are only two events of which the second invariably follows the first. We delude ourselves when we imagine that our idea of causation involves anything more. ”

“ that the First Cause worked automatically like a somnambulist, and not reflectively like a sage; ”

“ The conditions of every causation are multifarious as we look at them in a regressus of causes or a progressus of effects, and as the mind of the individual can make but one judgment at a time, it may be that the one of the causes or effects which is considered, is in fact a trivial element in the causation, for in all our language we are accustomed to speak of one of the causes as the special cause, for it must be the special one in consideration. ”

“ It is difficult to believe, at any rate where physical laws are concerned, that the earlier part of the process which is the cause can make any difference to the effect, so long as the later part of the process which is the cause remains unchanged. Suppose, for example, that a man dies of arsenic poisoning, we say that his taking arsenic was the cause of death. ”

“ Above all, she should realize the multiplicity of causes which science more and more clearly recognizes in their single result. She should learn both by precept and by experience that for a single fact such as disease or health there are always many causes, so that any one who points confidently to a single cause, such as cold, fatigue, bacteria, or worry as a sufficient explanation of a person's disease, is almost certain to be wrong. ”

“ I shall hereafter assign a final cause for the law of epidemics which has been mentioned, which will discover a union of the goodness of the Supreme Being with one of the greatest calamities of human life. ”

“ If casual or irregular disturbing causes exist, we should probably require many such cycles of results to render their effect inappreciable. We obtain the desired result by taking the mean of all the367 observations in which a cause acts positively, and the mean of all in which it acts negatively. ”

“ Let us then suppose that a man by some such mischance has contracted a disease. He may not be sure that it is caused by a spirit, but if he has reason to suspect that such is the case he will send to the home of a mudang, describing his symptoms and asking her what spirit it is that is causing it. She may reply by naming some spirit, or she may declare that she must see the patient first. ”

“ It is manifest, therefore, that, if we are to attempt to ascend to the Supreme Cause—if we are to try to frame an idea of the Cause of all these subordinate causes;—we must conceive it as more different from any of them, than the most diverse are from each other;—more elevated above the highest, than the highest is above the lowest. ”

“ It is clear that when the disturbing action, the cause of disease, works upon the fundamental element, the same causes will produce fundamentally similar effects; when, on the contrary, this action is exercised upon the acquired and special element of each race, the same causes will produce different effects. ”

“ Uncertainty of conclusion.
(a) Plurality of causes is mentioned by Mill as constituting the “characteristic imperfection” of the method of agreement. As the term signifies, plurality of causes represents a condition where a given phenomenon has more than one cause, or where different causes produce the same effect. For example, “A poor crop” may be due to drought, neglect, pests, etc.; heat may be caused by friction, electricity, combustion. Unfavorable home conditions; ill health; dislike for teacher—any one of these might be followed by irregular attendance. ”

“ He said:
'To treat proxima causa as the cause which is nearest in time is out of the question. Causes are spoken of as if they were as distinct from one another as beads in a row or links in a chain, but-if this metaphysical topic has to be referred to-it is not wholly so. The chain of causation is a handy expression, but the figure is inadequate. ”

“ In short, we are all, though in different degrees, the subjects of a variety of subtle influences, which, more or less, neutralize each other, and many of which, therefore, we never observe; and frequently when we do observe the effects, we have neither time nor capacity for tracing the cause; and when in more susceptible organisms such effects are manifested, we content ourselves with referring the phenomena to disease or imposture. ”

“ If we would undertake to write the history of a Disease, the very first thing needful is to frame in one’s own mind a clear conception of what the History of a Disease in a general way is, for it is from a right preliminary conception, that the right conditions will follow which a Historian as such is bound to fulfil. ”

“ No two persons—that is to say, human causes—present exactly the same effects. Every fact evolved will differ more or less. And, lastly, every cause is manifested as a unit by its occupation or pervasion of a given space. ”

“ Disease occurs when the sum of vital force which tends to neutralize all causes of disturbance, (in other words, when the resistance offered by the vital force) is weaker than the acting cause of the disturbance. ”

“ In the search for causes of disease throughout the ages, this field, so fruitful in material, has been left almost unexplored. The disclosures of the early future will wonderfully change the sentiments entertained in regard to the cause of a large proportion of our diseases. ”

“ I conceive it to be necessary, when the hypothesis relates to causation, that the supposed cause should not only be a real phenomenon, something actually existing in nature, but should be already known to exercise, or at least to be capable of exercising, an influence of some sort over the effect. ”

“ Fallacies of cause occur in every hour of waking life. We attribute effects to wrong causes. We are especially liable to this from the fact that both cause and effect are conditions, and causation is a change of condition from an antecedent to a consequent. ”

“ Does he not hold the doctrine that there can be no effect, mental or physical, without an adequate cause? and that mental states, faculties, and idiosyncrasies, that are the result of gradual development and life-long—or even ancestral—habit, cannot be suddenly changed by any known or imaginable cause? ”

“ Thus the natural history of doubt, viewed as a chapter of human history, like the chapter of physiology which studies a disease, will point indirectly to the cure, or at least to the mode of avoiding the causes which induce the disease ”

“ The Common Fundamental Cause in the Nature of Diseases All the phases of the process of development of the medical science, including those of the earliest periods of civilization, have in their way of understanding the causal nature of diseases that one thing in common that the diseases, owing to external causes, enter into the human body and thus, by force of a necessary or at least unavoidable law, disturb it in its existence, cause it pain and at last destroy it. ”

“ It has been judiciously remarked that pathological facts, or, to speak in common language, diseases in their different forms and degrees afford in the case of physiological investigation the most valuable equivalent to experimentation properly so called; inasmuch as they often exhibit to us a definite disturbance in some one organ or organic function, the remaining organs and functions being, in the first instance at least, unaffected. ”

“ Finally, notwithstanding the difficulties I have mentioned, enough subservience to a fixed type on the part of pathological new formations has been observed, especially in cases where the new growth and its cause have been limited and simple, to warrant the assertion that pathological evolution in this respect is analogous with physiological development. ”

“ Whence comes it that from any given exposure to an exciting cause, no two persons will be affected alike, or in the same degree? Some may suffer severely, others be slightly affected, while by far the greater number will escape altogether. ”

“ His natural good sense, however, soon reacted against these impressions, for he knew that all the astonishing manifestations which he had met with must be due to natural causes. But what natural cause could explain the danger-signal which had reached him, or the violent shock which he had just experienced? ”

“ When we enumerate causes of disease we see among them many that under ordinary circumstances minister to life, health, and enjoyment; and I can hardly refer at all to the varying circumstances under which they become the medium of pain, disease and death. These circumstances are so various, so many of them are apt to be put in operation at the same time, and so little power have we of excluding them one after the other, so as to ascertain the exact efficiency of each, that our observation respecting their actual effects are open to much fallacy. ”

“ Hence the difficulty of determining, under what class of diseases parturition should be arranged, consists in there being two kinds of diseased actions comprehended under one word; which have each their different proximate cause.
In Sect. XXXIX. 8. 4. and in Class II. 1. 1. 1. we have endeavoured to give names to four links of animal causation, which conveniently apply to the classification of diseases; thus in common nictitation, or winking with the eyes without our attention to it, the increased irritation is the proximate cause; the stimulus of the air on the dry cornea is the remote cause ”

“ The remote cause, or belief, is not more dangerous, because of its priority, and the connection of past mortal thoughts with present, — than the predisposing and exciting cause.
Perhaps an adult has a deformity, produced, thirty years ago, by the terror of his mother. ”

“ He definitely places the cause of the pathogenic conflict in the present moment and considers that in seeking for the cause in the distant past one is only following the desire of the patient, which is to withdraw himself as much as possible from the present important period. ”

“ A single touch, by introducing into the body some morbid matter, may set up an immensely involved set of functional disturbances and structural alterations. The whole tenor of a life may be changed by a word of advice; or a glance may determine an action which alters thoughts, feelings, and deeds throughout a long series of years. In those still more involved combinations of changes which societies exhibit, this truth is still more conspicuous. ”

“ Again, there has, within quite a recent period of time, come a considerable change in the human system itself, attributable in a measure, probably, to some or all of the above causes, in relation to the character and tendencies of diseases. ”

“ Nowadays, all this is past, in medical science. As to the causes of disease, we know that they are facts of nature,—various, but distinguishable by diagnosis and research, and more or less capable of prevention or control or counter-action. ”

“ THERE are certain mental mysteries associated with peculiar states of disease, and especially with low, nervous diseases, which discover unexpected powers of mind, and which illustrate some of the conditions on which human life depends, and the laws that govern its continuance. ”

“ I have discerned disease in the human mind, and recognized the patient's fear of it, months before the so-called Disease foreseen disease made its appearance in the body. Disease being a belief, a latent illusion of mortal mind, the sensation would not appear if the error of belief was met and destroyed by truth. ”

“ To discover the nature of an uncommon disease, or to account for an unusual symptom, puzzles his invention.—Ignorant of every true principle, from which, by a just reasoning, he might be able to deduce practical inferrences, he knows not what prognostic to make, or what plan of treatment to observe.—Unsteady and irresolute, he attempts a variety of means ”

“ Also there will be several Invasions at one time, as Plague, and War, amongst neighbouring and adjoining Creatures or Parts. But this is to be observed, That the sensitive corporeal motions make all diseases, and not the Rational, although the Rational are many times the occasion, that the sensitive do move into such or such a disease; for all those that are sick by conceit, their sicknesses are caused by the rational corporeal motions. ”

“ All rose up with pleasure at this proposal. And they commenced to invent diseases so fast that they had soon named every kind of sickness that you ever heard of. Had they thought of many more, no human beings would now be alive. ”

“ In this work new theories, some revolutionary in the extreme, are advanced as to the nature of disease, the action of drugs and stimulants, the germ theory, the quantity of food necessary to sustain life, of cancer, insanity, pain, fatigue, sleep, death, the causation and maintenance of bodily heat and of human vitality. ”

“ The reparative process which Nature has instituted and which we call disease, has been hindered by some want of knowledge or attention, in one or in all of these things, and pain, suffering, or interruption of the whole process sets in. ”