Modern inorganic chemistry / by J.W. Mellor.

  • Mellor, Joseph William, 1869-1938.
Date:
1925
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Modern inorganic chemistry / by J.W. Mellor. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Otherwise chemistry was no science during the reign of phlogiston, and the Lavoisierian chemistry no science so long as oxygen was taken for the principle of acidity, he included in the term science those transient theories which are necessarily employed in the erection of the temple of truth. Deductive and inductive induction.—The term induction is applied by the logician to the quest of science for generalizations, that is, for the canones or universales regulce of Roger Bacon. In deduction, the attempt is made to widen the bounds of knowledge without stepping outside known facts—the Euclidean method is a good illustration ; in induction, a leap is taken from the known into the illimitable beyond. Two important methods of induction will be recognized—one may be called the deduc- tive method, the other the inductive method. The former was favoured by Francis Bacon, the latter by Isaac Newton. 1. Bacon’s deductive method, by what he called the interpretationes naturae. Here the facts are exhaustively classified until the generalization becomes clear. a is M or N, or 0, or P, or . . . ; but a is not N, nor 0, nor P, nor . . . ; and consequently, a is M. Thus, in the 105th aphorism of his Novum Organum, 1620, F. Bacon said : The induction which is to be available for discovery and demonstration . . . must analyse nature by proper rejections and exclusions ; and then, after a sufficient number of negatives, come to a conclusion on the affirmative instances. The method appears to proceed from known facts to general conclusions, ci particulari ad universale. It is based on facts already known, and has therefore been called a, priori reasoning. The method by which Boyle’s and Charles’ laws were discovered might be cited in illustration of one form of the method of deductive induction. 2. Newton's inductive method, by what F. Bacon called the anticipa- tiones naturce. Here the attempt is made to infer the hidden generalization from the consequences of the assumption (hypothesis) what that generaliza- tion is. The process is sometimes called a posteriori reasoning. This method of investigation was extensively employed with glorious results by Isaac Newton, although it had been advocated by Aristotle over a thousand years earlier. Francis Bacon, indeed, before Newton’s time, protested against anticipating nature by hypotheses, but the greatest triumphs of modern science have been won by the application of the Newtonian method, while the Baconian method has been singularly unfruitful. Francis Bacon’s failure in the practice of his own method was complete. The particular form which the Newtonian method takes in science is to devise provisional generalizations called hypotheses or working hypotheses to explain facts and phenomena. The appeal is then made to observation and experiment in order to test the validity of the proposed generalization. Examples : The cause of the increase in the weight of metals calcined in air ; A. L. Lavoisier’s theory of combustion, and his experiments on the transformation of water into earth ; J. Mavow’s work on combustion ; etc. The application of this method of inquiry involves (a) The accumu- lation of facts by observation and experiment; (b) The employment of the imagination in framing hypotheses to explain the facts ; and (c) The appeal to facts to prove or disprove the hypotheses. By this procedure, said W. Whewell, the hypothesis becomes the guide of its former teacher