Comments on "A Nonlinear Mapping for Data Structure Analysis"

A recent paper by Sammon1 describes a useful technique for analyzing data and helping find clusters. It consists of a nonlinear mapping of the original data into two dimensions (for visual inspection) which is superior for many purposes to use of the first two principal components. The present correspondence points out that essentially the same mapping can be achieved by a widely used, easily obtainable computer propram for multidimensional scaling called M-D-SCAL.