 A different sort of worry about the evidential function of measurement arises on the global scale, when the testing of entire theories is concerned. As Thomas Kuhn (1961) argues, scientific theories are usually accepted long before quantitative methods for testing them become available. The reliability of newly introduced measurement methods is typically tested against the predictions of the theory rather than the other way around. In Kuhn’s words, “The road from scientific law to scientific measurement can rarely be traveled in the reverse direction” (1961: 189). For example, Dalton’s Law, which states that the weights of elements in a chemical compound are related to each other in whole-number proportions, initially conflicted with some of the best known measurements of such proportions. It is only by assuming Dalton’s Law that subsequent experimental chemists were able to correct and improve their measurement techniques (1961: 173). Hence, Kuhn argues, the function of measurement in the physical sciences is not to test the theory but to apply it with increasing scope and precision, and eventually to allow persistent anomalies to surface that would precipitate the next crisis and scientific revolution. Note that Kuhn is not claiming that measurement has no evidential role to play in science. Instead, he argues that measurements cannot test a theory in isolation, but only by comparison to some alternative theory that is proposed in an attempt to account for the anomalies revealed by increasingly precise measurements (for an illuminating discussion of Kuhn’s thesis see Hacking 1983: 243–5).