Mr Glover on Forms of Induction. 137 



not be found in m A ; then the law states that n — m A contain aor a-¥b. 

 2. Of the Prerogative form. Properly speaking we should start here with 

 the knowledge of the existence of the property a in ra ^, or ?i — m A ; let n A 

 then contain a; here, instead of seeking to enumerate every instance before 

 obtaining a law for the class, it is enough to know that in A', A", or A'", — the 

 prerogative instances, a is connected in a manner believed essential with 6, 

 or 6 + c, or 6 + c + <? in order to frame the law — " All n A contain o + 6, or 

 0+6 + c, or a+6 + c + rf.'' One sufficient prerogative instance can enable 

 a negative conclusion to be drawn, just as in the case of a positive law. The 

 downward application of laws framed from the stud}' of prerogative facts fur- 

 nishes the means of verifying the observations already made. 



We are informed by an eminent authority in logical science, who honours 

 these pages with his general approval, that Duns Scotus distinguished two 

 species of induction, corresponding with our first and second forms. Bacon 

 confounded the induction given by way of example by Aristotle, and which 

 therefore was our first form, with the second or uncertain form practised in 

 medicine.* The great improvements effected by Bacon on the views of his 

 predecessors with regard to induction, consisted in the extensive grasp he took 

 of the province in the cultivation of science appropriated to induction ; and 

 also in shewing the power possessed by particular well chosen facts. These, 

 the most important and original of his' notions have yet received a too implicit 

 attention from those who have written on his philosophy. Until about the 

 epoch of the Novum Organon, philosophers were not in possession of such in- 

 struments as are requisite to make known fully the relations of most of those 

 instances termed prerogative. Till then, therefore, induction was described 

 as a mode of mental procedure ; Bacon described it by its corresponding 

 signs in nature. Therefore it was, that his precepts were so powerful in dis- 

 playing the advantages attendant upon the cultivation of science, inductively. 



Organic Remains in the Old Red Sandstone of Fife. By the 

 Reverend John Anderson, Minister of Newburgh. Com- 

 municated by the Author. 



The county of Fife occupies the eastern portion of the great 

 independent coal formation of Scotland, bounded on the south 

 by the Frith of Forth, on the cast by the German Ocean and 

 Bay of St Andrews, and on the north by the river Tay. It 

 may be regarded as divided into three principal geological dis- 

 tricts ; that of the coal measures, which occupy exclusively the 

 southern district, lying betwixt the Forth and the Lomond 



• Nov. Org. P. 1, s. C, Aph. 105. 



