a. Forms: 6–7 empericall, 7–8 empyrical, 7– empirical. [f. prec. + -AL.]
1. Med. a. Of a physician: That bases his methods of practice on the results of observation and experiment, not on scientific theory. b. Of a remedy, a rule of treatment, etc.: That is adopted because found (or believed) to have been successful in practice, the reason of its efficacy being unknown. † Also as quasi-sb. in pl. = ‘empirical remedies.’
1569. J. Sanford, trans. Agrippa’s Van. Artes, 140 b. Empericall, that is to saie, that consisteth in practise, of experimentes.
1612. Woodall, Surg. Mate, To Rdr. C 2 b (1655). Medicine be composed by a Chymicall, Methodicall, or Empericall Surgeon.
1656. Ridgley, Pract. Physick, 26. Empiricalls are: Earth-worms provided divers wayes.
1685. Evelyn, Mem. (1857), II. 216. He had a laboratory, and knew of many empirical medicines.
1830. Mackintosh, Eth. Philos., Wks. 1846, I. 136, note. Sextus, a physician of the empirical, i. e. anti-theoretical school.
1869. E. A. Parkes, Pract. Hygiene (ed. 3), p. i. Empirical rules … observations of what seemed good or bad for health.
2. That practises physic or surgery without scientific knowledge; that is guilty of quackery. Also of medicines: That is of the nature of a quack nostrum. Cf. EMPIRIC B. 2.
a. 1680. Butler, Rem. (1759), II. 304. A Pedlar of Medicines … and Tinker empirical to the Body of Man.
1839. G. P. R. James, Louis XIV., IV. 45. Empirical drugs for the cure of various diseases.
1840. H. Ainsworth, Tower Lond. (1864), 66. When all the physicians of the royal household were dismissed, and the duke sent messengers for empirical aid.
3. In matters of art or practice: That is guided by mere experience, without scientific knowledge; also of methods, expedients, etc. Often in opprobrious sense transf. from 2: Ignorantly presumptuous, resembling, or characteristic of, a charlatan.
1751. Johnson, Rambler, No. 183, ¶ 13. I have avoided … that … empirical morality, which cures one vice by means of another.
1793. Holcroft, trans. Lavater’s Physiog., xxix. 136. We are all more or less empirical physiognomists.
1825. McCulloch, Pol. Econ., I. 42. Their arguments … had somewhat of an empirical aspect.
1861. Goschen, For. Exch., 84. The application of hasty and empirical measures.
1872. Yeats, Techn. Hist. Comm., 317. The great majority of accidents are … the results of empirical management.
4. Pertaining to, or derived from, experience. Empirical law: see quot. 1846. Empirical formula: in Mathematics, a formula arrived at inductively, and not verified by deductive proof; in Chemistry, a formula that merely enumerates the ultimate constituents of a compound in any convenient order, without implying any theory of the mode in which they are grouped.
1649. Jer. Taylor, Gt. Exemp., Pref. ¶ 46. The propositions of this philosophy being, (as in many other), Empiricall and best found out by observation of reall and materiall events.
1798. Month. Rev., XXV. 585. His empirical acquaintance with the works of taste is not comprehensive.
1829. Nat. Philos., I. Mechanics, III. v. 18 (Usef. Know. Ser.). By an empirical formula is meant one that is conceived or invented without any analysis or demonstration.
1830. Sir J. Herschel, Stud. Nat. Phil., 71. If the knowledge be merely accumulated experience, the art is empirical.
1834. Mrs. Somerville, Connex. Phys. Sc., viii. (1849), 70. An empirical law observed by Baron Bode, in the mean distances of the planets.
1836–7. Sir W. Hamilton, Lect. (1877), II. xxi. 26. Knowledge a posteriori is a synonym for knowledge empirical, or from experience.
1846. Mill, Logic, III. xvi. § i. An empirical law then, is an observed uniformity, presumed to be resolvable into simpler laws, but not yet resolved into them.
1850. Daubeny, Atom. The., ix. (ed. 2), 297. SO3+KO is the rational formula of the salt called sulphate of potass: S, O4, K the empirical.
1869. Buckle, Civiliz., III. v. 385. The empirical corroboration of his doctrine by direct experiment.
