398 ACTUAL WORKING IN ORIGINAL RESEARCH. 



CHAPTEE XLIV. 



CLASSIFICATION OF RESULTS. 



THIS is an important process in scientific research ; it is 

 closely related to the act of comparison, and is the next 

 step towards the interpretation of results. We first observe 

 two or more things, one at a time, then compare them 

 together, and perceive either a similarity or difference, 

 and classify them accordingly. For instance, we immerse 

 a large number of different substances in a liquefied gas, 

 and observe them one by one, and find that many of them 

 are dissolved and the remainder are not, and we then form 

 them into two classes, viz., those which are soluble and those 

 which are insoluble in that liquid. We also arrange things 

 of a similar kind together in classes, and then observe for 

 some relation between them ; for instance, we class together 

 all the acid substances which we immersed in the liquid, 

 also ail the magnetic ones, &c., and then observe whether 

 either of those classes agrees with the soluble or insoluble 

 ones. In the first of these cases we class together a number 

 of different things, and look for similarities and differences, 

 and thus divide the results into two classes, which we may 

 again treat in a similar way ; and in the second, we class 

 together each group of similar things, and observe for 

 other similarities and differences, and subdivide them 

 also and repeat the process if necessary. 



During a research we classify at every convenient 

 stage of progress, because every classification affords an 

 opportunity of generalising; we also classify in every 

 possible way, not only according to the more manifest 

 similarities and differences of the phenomena or facts, but 



