Tout est poison, rien n'est poison, tout est une question de dose. Everything is poisonous, nothing is poisonous, it is all a matter of dose.
Claude BernardRead
When a physician is called to a patient, he should decide on the diagnosis, then the prognosis, and then the treatment. ... Physicians must know the evolution of the disease, its duration and gravity in order to predict its course and outcome. Here statistics intervene to guide physicians, by teaching them the proportion of mortal cases, and if observation has also shown that the successful and unsuccessful cases can be recognized by certain signs, then the prognosis is more certain.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Physicians must understand the disease and use statistical evidence to make accurate diagnoses and prognoses.
This quote by Claude Bernard emphasizes the essential steps a physician takes when addressing a patient's health concerns. It underlines the importance of accurately diagnosing an illness, understanding its progression, and implementing appropriate treatment based on statistical outcomes. Bernard stresses that knowledge of a disease’s evolution and the associated data can greatly enhance a physician's ability to predict how a patient may respond to treatment, thus ensuring more effective medical practice.
Themes
PhysicianDiagnosisPrognosisTreatmentStatisticsDiseaseHealth
In practice
Example use cases
This quote could be shared in a medical conference to emphasize the importance of a systematic approach in patient care.
More from Claude Bernard
All quotes →The goal of scientific physicians in their own science ... is to reduce the indeterminate. Statistics therefore apply only to cases in which the cause of the facts observed is still indeterminate.
Claude BernardRead
Theories are like a stairway; by climbing, science widens its horizon more and more, because theories embody and necessarily include proportionately more facts as they advance.
Claude BernardRead
True science teaches us to doubt and, in ignorance, to refrain.
Claude BernardRead
Now, a living organism is nothing but a wonderful machine endowed with the most marvellous properties and set going by means of the most complex and delicate mechanism.
Claude BernardRead
The experimenter who does not know what he is looking for will not understand what he finds.
Claude BernardRead
Similar quotes
Every existence above a certain rank has its singular points; the higher the rank the more of them. At these points, influences whose physical magnitude is too small to be taken account of by a finite being may produce results of the greatest importance.
James C. MaxwellRead
A cardinal principle that we must not stray from - no exceptions - is that your genetic information is your business in terms of who sees it. Nobody should be gaining access to that information without your explicit permission, and nobody should be requiring you to take a genetic test unless you decide that that's what you want to do.
Francis CollinsRead
At the heart of science is an essential balance between two seemingly contradictory attitudes-an openness to new ideas, no matter how bizarre or counterintuitive they may be, and the most ruthless skeptical scrutiny of all ideas, old and new. This is how deep truths are winnowed from deep nonsense.
Carl SaganRead
Science is founded on uncertainty. Each time we learn something new and surprising, the astonishment comes with the realization that we were wrong before.
Lewis ThomasRead
In space, you need to exercise your heart since it's not pumping blood around at the same rate.
Mae JemisonRead
The universe has really never made things in ones. The Earth is special and everything else is different? No, we’ve got seven other planets. The sun? No, the sun is one of those dots in the night sky. The Milky Way? No, it’s one of a hundred billion galaxies. And the universe - maybe it’s countless other universes.
Neil Degrasse TysonRead