CLASSIFICATION OF SCIENCES 91 



Magnetism. It is difficult to see why Mechanics 

 should be called "abstract-concrete," or why 

 the Sciences of Heat, Light, etc., are not included 

 under Physics, and so on. 



BAIN'S CLASSIFICATION. Prof. Alexander Bain 

 distinguished Fundamental (or Abstract) Sciences 

 from Dependent (or Concrete) Sciences, and in so 

 doing, apart from the nomenclature, he made 

 a distinct step of progress. It is evident that 

 Geography (one of the dependent sciences) is de- 

 rivative, complex, and particulate, as contrasted 

 with Physics (one of the fundamental sciences), 

 which is independent, simple, and general. 



The fundamental sciences, according to Bain, 

 were Logic, Mathematics, Mechanics or Mechan- 

 ical Physics, Molecular Physics, Chemistry, Biol- 

 ogy, and Psychology. "In every one of these," 

 he said, "there is a distinct department of phe- 

 nomena; taken together they comprehend all 

 known phenomena, and the order indicated is the 

 order from simple to complex, and from indepen- 

 dent to dependent, marking the order of study 

 and evolution." Taken collectively "they con- 

 tain the laws of every known process in the 

 world, whether of matter or of mind; and set 

 forth these laws in the order suitable for studying 

 and comprehending them to the greatest possible 

 advantage." 



The dependent sciences include Mineralogy. 



