ILLUSTRATIONS OF SCIENTIFIC INFERENCE. 335 



fact admitted ; 12th. That the statement that some 

 metals are not heat-conductors is quite false, because it also 

 contradicts the fact; 13th. That the statement that all 

 heat-conductors are non-metals, is untrue, because the fact 

 states that some heat-conductors are metals ; 1 4th. That 

 it would be incorrect to say that all heat-conductors are 

 metals, because the fact states that ' all the metals ' are 

 only 'some,' or a part, of the conductors of heat, and 

 therefore some heat-conductors are not metals; loth. 

 That the statement, some heat- conductors are metals, is a 

 true one, because some heat-conductors are all the metals ; 

 16th. That no metal can be a non-conductor of heat, 

 because all the metals are conductors of heat; 17th. That 

 any non-conductor of heat must be a non-metal because 

 all metals are conductors of heat; 18th. That any non- 

 conductor of heat must be a non-metal, because all metals 

 are conductors and none are non-conductors of heat ; 19th. 

 That conduction of heat really exists, because metals con- 

 duct heat ; 20th. That conduction is a means by which 

 heat is transmitted; and, 21st. That a mixture of metals 

 is a mixture of conductors of heat. In this manner by 

 arranging the implicit ideas of the fact or statement in 

 different ways, no less than twenty other ideas, none of 

 which are merely repetitions, have been evolved from it, 

 and rendered explicit, by the aid of analysis and imme- 

 diate inference. 



A very large number of additional inferences might be 

 drawn from this same proposition without adding any more 

 truth to it, simply by dividing the statement ' all metals ' 

 into all the possible classes of metals, and drawing a series 

 of inferences from each of the classes. Amongst the pos- 

 sible classes are. solid, liquid, brittle, ductile, red, yellow, 

 white, bluish-white, easily-fusible, fusible with difficulty, 

 electro-positive, electro-negative, therm o-electro-positive. 



