332 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[Oct. 27. 1855. 



A POSSIBLE TEST OF AUTHORSHIP. 



(Vol. xil., pp. 181. 269. 309.) 



I have, with the help of some friends, made an 

 experiment for the purpose of verifying Prof. De 

 Morgan's theory, and we send you the results in 

 the accompanying table. I think that it will be 

 found that the average number of letters in the 

 word, or the number of letters in a given number 

 of words, does not vary so much with different 

 authors as the distribution of the letters among 

 the words. For instance, in my table, the averages 

 of Milton and Keats are very nearly alike, but 

 the words used by them are very different, Keats 

 using more long and also more short words than 

 Milton. There is a marked difference in this re- 

 spect also between Burke and Junius, though 

 their averages are very similar. An average, to 

 be useful as a test, must be founded on a much 

 more extended computation than mine, and works 

 of the same author on various subjects must be 



examined. The average of the first two thousand 

 words in Milton is somewhat higher than that 

 given by me, which shows that two thousand is 

 too low a number. My authors, like Mr. Hack- 

 wood's, were chosen at random. The words are 

 in each case the first five thousand in the work 

 mentioned in the table, except that we were 

 obliged to omit the latter half of the first chapter 

 of Burnet, on account of the great number of 

 proper names. Dates, headings of chapters, &c. 

 are omitted throughout. The process is not so 

 laborious as Prof, De Morgan supposes, for we 

 found that by the means which we used the 

 words might be examined, and the results noted, 

 at the rate of one thousand words per hour, with- 

 out any great difficulty. It may be worth while 

 to mention that the sixteen-lettered word, which 

 occurs once in Burke and thrice in Junius, is 

 "unconstitutional," and the seventeen-lettered 

 word in Burnet "plenipotentiaries." A, F. B. 



Diss. 



PHOTOGRAPHIC CORRESPONDENCE. 



Alhumenized Collodion. — We gave in Vol. xii., p. 310., 

 a description of M. Taupenot's albumenized collodion pro- 

 cess. M. Taupenot has addressed a letter to the editor of 

 La Lumiere on the subject, a translation of which we 

 subjoin. He says : — 



" The good reception given to the process of photo- 

 graphy on albumenized collodion, published in your last 

 number and in tlie Gomptes rendus de VAcademie, makes 

 it expedient for me to add to the principal ideas some de- 

 tails which may be useful to photographers who wish to 

 try these processes and perfect them. 



" I ■\vill first say, in answer to a question which has 

 been addressed to me several times on the subject of the 

 sensitiveness which albumen acquires when spread upon 

 the collodion, that I attribute this entirely to the compact 

 coating of iodide of silver on which it is spread, instead 

 of restilig on an inert surface of glass, as in the first pro- 

 cess of M. Nie'pce de Saint Victor. The image developes 

 itself, in fact, on the surface of the albumen, and not on 

 the collodion, as is proved by different prints submitted 

 to the Academy ; in which I have effaced the image with 

 wet cotton on certain parts without attacking the surface 

 of albumen, or, of course, that of collodion underneath. 

 The image is then entirely on the albumen ; it has more- 

 over nearly all the finish which that gives, without having 

 hardness, if the precautions which I will now indicate are 

 carefully taken. The process ought accordingly to be 

 characterised by the expression of albumen on collodion. 

 No. 313.] 



rather than that of albumenized collodion ; and 1 consider it 

 as the perfecting of the process of M. Ni^pce, giving the 

 albumen the sensibility which he complains of it not pos- 

 sessing. One can see,' by the positives and negatives ex- 

 hibited in the transept of the Exposition, that, besides the 

 sensibility in following this principle, a good deal of de- 

 tail is gained, above all, on the trees, on account of the 

 depth of the sensitised layer; although, I repeat, the 

 image is only superficial. But that which ought prin- 

 cipally to encourage photographers in trying this new 

 system, is the promptitude and facility with which the 

 plates can be prepared, and the convenience of being able 

 to keep the plates both before and after the exposure in 

 the camera. Thus, for a landscape, where a gust of wind 

 or too briglit sunshine, may spoil it, one can wait for the 

 most favourable moment; and if suddenly, daring the 

 exposure, the weather becomes less propitious, if there is 

 any movement, or any object passes before the camera, 

 the lens can be closed and opened again when the dis- 

 turbing cause shall have passed away. It is in this man- 

 ner that 1 have been able, in spite of the wind, to work 

 in many cases, and to have the trees Avell defined by 

 taking advantage of the short moments when the trees 

 are still. With respect to the preparation of the plates, 

 I would state, that after they are covered with albumen, 

 they should on no account be placed horizontall}', but 

 supported almost vertically, to allow them to dry. By 

 this means the coating of the albumen is rendered so thin, 

 that it only requires half an hour, or at the most one hour, 

 instead of twenty-four, to dry them ; and one can easily 



