456 SPECIAL METHODS OF DISCOVERY. 



method. The special processes of research vary also to a 

 certain extent with the nature of the discovery, accord- 

 ing as it is that of a fact, law, principle, substance, force, 

 cause, effect, coincidence, or other relation, &c. Scientific 

 discoveries in general may also be divided into two great 

 classes, viz., qualitative, or those consisting of new truths 

 of simple existence, whether of fact or principle ; and 

 those of a quantitative character ; and the latter are found 

 by quantitative methods. 



New scientific discoveries are arrived at 1st, by ob- 

 serving either ordinary or novel phenomena of nature ; and 

 as all natural knowledge is originally derived from ex- 

 perience, this source of new knowledge is the basis of 

 all others. The phenomena of nature may arise either 

 from the natural course of events, as in the progress 

 of growth or disease in plants or animals, an eclipse of 

 Venus, &c. ; or from the effects of artificial arrangements 

 called experiments or tests ; or they may occur in arts or 

 manufactures, or during travel, &c. 2nd, new discoveries are 

 also obtained by comparing and classifying either old or 

 new truths respecting natural phenomena. And, 3rd, by 

 drawing conclusions or inferences from such observations, 

 comparisons, or classifications. Discoveries are sometimes 

 made by each of these methods alone, but more frequently 

 by means of all three combined. 



The new scientific knowledge obtained by merely ob- 

 serving natural phenomena consists only of isolated facts ; 

 that acquired by comparing and classifying truths is com- 

 posed of analogies, similarities, differences, and general 

 truths ; and that obtained by drawing conclusions or in- 

 ferences from such similarities and differences includes 

 general truths, laws, principles, causes, coincidences, and 

 other abstruse relations. All the new information ob- 

 tained by these means may become the starting-point of 



