March 11, 1887.] 



SCIENCE. 



243 



they are in marked contrast with the curves of 

 the noveHsts. An interesting case was furnished 

 in two recent addresses on the labor question by 

 Mr. Edward Atkinson. In reality, one address 

 was given to two very different audiences. One 

 was made up from the workingmen of Provi- 

 dence, and the other from the alumni of the An- 

 dover theological seminaiy. On reading the two, 

 one cannot avoid being struck by the marked dif- 

 ference in style, although the two papers are much 



The average length of ten thousand words in his ad- 

 dresses on the labor question is 4.298 letters. The 

 mean word-length of the writers thus far exam- 

 ined, based upon a count of ten thousand words 

 from each, is as follows : — 



Atkinson 4.298 



Dickens 4.342 



Thackeray 4.481 



MiU 4.775 



A friend has furnished me with the result of 

 the count of the first five thousand five hundred 



^50 



^00 



150 



100 



50 



10 U 1^ 13 14 15 16 



Fig. 7. — Two groups, of ten thousand words bac^, from 'Oliver Twist,' 



' Vanity fair,' . 



alike in substance. It was interesting, then, to 

 inquire whether their curves of composition 

 would show any marked resemblance. An analy- 

 sis of five thousand words from each paper was 

 made, and the result is shown in fig. 10. A 

 very satisfactory, indeed a striking, general re- 

 semblance will be observed ; and it u ill also be 

 seen that Mr. Atkinson's curve differs decidedly 

 from others previously figured and described. It 

 is shown in contrast with that of John Stuart Mill 

 in fig. 11. Mr. Atkinson's composition is remark- 

 able in respect to the shortness of the words used. 



words of Caesar's 'Commentaries.' The mean 

 word-length is 6.065. The most extensive word- 

 counting that I know of is that of the words and 

 letters in the Bible. I cannot vouch for the reli- 

 ability of the information which periodically floats 

 through the columns of the public press, that the 

 Old Testament contains 592,493 words with 2,728,- 

 100 letters, and the New Testament 181.253 words 

 with 838,380 letters. It is interesting to note, how- 

 ever, that these numbers give averages of 4.604 

 and 4.635 respectively, agreeing within less than 

 one-half of one per cent. 



