VI APPENDIX. 



This rests, so far as I can determine, upon the statement of 

 Marsh, already quoted. 



II. We have seen that Shakspere has over 24,000, and that 

 Milton in his poems has over 17,000. 



The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle contains about 12,000 words, and 

 the English Bible, which is treating of quite special subjects, 

 contains over TOOO words. 



III. The whole number of words in Worcester's Dictionary is 

 104,000; in Webster's last edition 110,000 (these numbers are 

 approximate). Many of these, in fact most of the additions since 

 1840, are technical words, the use of which is quite common 

 among educated people. 



The only conclusion I feel at liberty to draw is, that Marsh's 

 numbers are quite too small, and that 30,000 words is not at all 

 an unusual vocabulary. 



The further pursuit of this subject has great interest, but I 

 feel obliged to leave it, at this point, to the philologists, who are 

 more peculiarly concerned. I shall hope that this slight paper 

 may call out remarks from those members of the Society who 

 are better informed upon this subject than I can be. 



Note. — Since writing the above the Hon. George P. Marsh 

 has written a letter to the New York Nation, in which he states 

 that in giving estimates of the vocabularies of men of various 

 classes he used word "in the sense in which, in such discussions, 

 all philologists would agree in employing it," that is, "in esti- 

 mating the number of words I took only the simple or stem and 

 not the inflected forms of the vocables." 



This of course explains the difference between Mr. Marsh's 

 estimates and my own conclusions in the preceding paper, but 

 I have been induced to allow that paper to remain in its pre- 

 sent form, as it is an attempt to get a practical idea of the 

 number of words, in the sense in which I use the term, which 

 are in common use (counting, for example, lover, loveless, and 

 lovely, as three woi'ds, although they have the same "simple or 

 stem"). In this way we obtain a knowledge of the number of 

 signs for ideas, and the research may be of interest although not 

 of philological value. 



I am the more inclined to leave the conclusions as they are, 

 as Prof. Eastman, U S. Navy, starting from the same basis, has 

 fully and carefully confirmed ray principal conclusion, viz. : that 

 many men have vocabularies of over 30,000 words, and he has 

 shown that the probable error of his estimate is less than one 

 per cent. 



May 30, 1875. 



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