Pierre Charles Alexandre Louis Quotes

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The objection made to the numerical method, to wit, the difficulty or impossibility of forming classes of similar facts, is alike applicable to all the methods that might be substituted; that it is impossible to appreciate each case with mathematical exactness, and it is precisely on this account that enumeration becomes necessary; by so doing, the errors, (which are inevitable,) being the same in two groups of patients subjected to different treatment, mutually compensate each other, and they may be disregarded without sensibly affecting the exactness of the results.

Pierre Charles Alexandre Louis
In any epidemic... let us suppose five hundred of the sick, taken indiscriminately, to be subjected to one kind of treatment, and five hundred others, taken in the same manner, to be treated in a different mode; if the mortality is greater among the first, than among the second, must we not conclude that the treatment was less appropriate, or less efficacious in the first class, than in the second? It is unavoidable; for among so large a collection, similarities of condition will necessarily be met with, and all things being equal, except the treatment, the conclusion will be rigorous.

Pierre Charles Alexandre Louis
Without the aid of statistics nothing like real medicine is possible.

Pierre Charles Alexandre Louis
All [knowledge] comes from experience, it is true, but experience is nothing if it does not form collections of similar facts. Now, to make collections is to count.

Pierre Charles Alexandre Louis
It behooves those who devote themselves to observation to be impressed by this truth (i.e., that many "facts" grow old) and to realize that the best work is only good in relation to its time and that it awaits another, more exact and more complete.

Pierre Charles Alexandre Louis