(a) “Honesty is the best policy,” thinks the physician as he reveals the cold, hard truth to his patient and thus shortens the patient’s life. (b) Spirituous liquor in excess acts as a poison, and therefore should not be used to resuscitate an extreme case. (c) “What is bought in the market is eaten; raw meat is bought in the market; therefore it is eaten.” (d) “Early to bed and early to rise makes one healthy, wealthy and wise.” I shall practice this for ten years and by that time hope to be healthy, wealthy and wise. (e) John has earned the enviable (?) reputation of being the “worst boy in school,” hence he is going to be the worst boy in “my grade.” (f) Mary is an inveterate whisperer; and since I know that some one is whispering, I am sure that that some one is Mary. (g) Being a convict, he is not to be trusted. (2) _Converse Accident._ _As the title implies this is the fallacy of reasoning from an accidental case to a general truth._ Illustrations: (a) “John has been a bad boy to-day; and hence he is going to make trouble during the entire term.” (b) “This food is good for hens; and hence it is good for all domestic fowls.” (c) “I know of several men who have been phenomenally serviceable to mankind, and none of these men were college trained; hence I conclude that college education is not essential to the attainment of the highest state of efficiency.” Relative to both accident and converse accident, it may be said that they obtain because all general truths, such as rules, principles, definitions, maxims, etc., have their _exceptions_; and it is through these exceptions that the two fallacies are made possible. _Accident and Converse Accident Distinguished from Division and Composition._ The fallacy of accident, we have learned, occurs when one reasons from a _general truth_ to an _accidental case_; whereas the fallacy of division obtains when one reasons from a _collective_ use of a term to a _distributive_ use; in both cases the procedure is from a _larger unit_ to a _smaller unit_. Moreover, with converse accident and composition, the movement is from the _smaller unit_ to the _larger_. Because of this similarity there is danger of confusing the two kinds of fallacies. As a matter of distinction between the fallacies of accident, and composition and division the attending comparative _résumé_ may be of value: (1) _Division_ is similar in movement to _accident_, while _composition_ resembles _converse accident_. (2) A valuable cue for remembering which way division and accident move, is to recall that division in arithmetic is a procedure from the larger unit to the smaller, and therefore that division in logic would have the same signification. (3) Division and composition pertain to _mathematical_ wholes; while accident and converse accident relate to _logical_ wholes.