540 



POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



on an average by nearly 6 per cent. (5.98 per cent.) from the averages 

 based upon 500 sentences from each author, with extreme variations 

 as high as 28.8 per cent. It seems quite plain, therefore, that several 

 thousand sentences from each author would have to be examined to get 

 anything like a constant simple sentence percentage. 



Now Mr. Gerwig's tables* for predication averages and simple sen- 

 tence percentages for prose works comprise averages of about 60,000 

 sentences taken from seventy-one different authors, exclusive of the 

 complete averages for Macaulay's 'History.' These tables I utilized 

 for a preliminary testf by employing the following device. I grouped 

 together all the works whose predication averages fell between 1.50 and 

 2.00 per sentence. This group yielded an average of 1.83 predications 

 per sentence and 53 simple sentences per hundred. Next I averaged 

 the works which contained between 2.00 and 2.25 predications per 

 sentence, and the average for this group was found to be 2.15 verbs 

 per sentence and 38 simple sentences per hundred. Proceeding sim- 

 ilarly by grouping the works whose predication averages fall between 

 2.25 and 2.50, between 2.50 and 2.75, and so on, we obtain the follow- 

 ing table : 



The numbers P, the predication averages, and S, the simple sentence 

 percentages, aside from the general reciprocal relation which we should 

 expect, manifest a more specific uniformity. The square-root of 53, the 

 first number under S, multiplied by 1.8G, the corresponding number 

 under P, is 13. -j-, but so also is the square-root of 39.1, the second 

 number under S, multiplied by 2.14, the corresponding number for P. 

 Similarly for the third, fourth, fifth pairs of corresponding numbers. 

 That is, we find 



1.86|/53.0 = 13. + 

 2.14 y^ 39.1 = 13.+ 



** University (of Nebraska) Studies,' Vol. 2, No. 1. 



t For a detailed discussion of this experiment, together with other matter 

 of a more technical nature, see ' University Studies,' University of Nebraska, 

 Vol. 111., No. 3. 



