42 On Telegraphic Communication. 



and might thus be transmitted by " telegraphic four-lettered 

 words." 



As Arabic numbers are universally recognized in Europe, 

 such a system would obviate the principal inconvenience of 

 foreign telegraphy ; for each nation and language might have 

 its own dictionary ; and since there would be less risk of error 

 in the actual transmission and receipt of a message by the 

 telegraph officials when once it was converted into telegraphic 

 language, so also would there be greater control over the 

 conversion and reconversion, in the hands of the sender and 

 receiver. 



Since there is no reason why certain numbers — say those 

 from ten to thirty-six — should not be assigned to the letters 

 of the alphabet, the proposed system does not forbid or inter- 

 fere with the use of cipher, or with the transmission of words 

 or names omitted in the dictionary, or newly coined, or 

 wrongly spelt, or otherwise unrepresented. 



The scheme is a perfectly feasible one. An ordinary 

 octavo page of the dictionary might contain 200 words, 

 so that 5 to 10 pages would contain the bulk of common 

 short words, 50 to 100 would contain nearly the whole 

 language; while an ordinary octavo volume of 500 pages 

 would contain all that the ingenuity of the compiler could find 

 to put into it. 



No attempt is here made at a complete enumeration of all 

 the advantages which such a codification would possess, nor 

 indeed to enter fully into the many bearings of the question. 

 It is sufficient for my present purpose to point out the enormous 

 advantage of signalling by numbers instead of by letters. 



I append rough data for comparison with the estimates I 

 have made above of the use of words and letters. 



" A well educated man in England, who has been at a 

 public school and at the university, who reads his Bible, his 

 Shakespeare, the Times, and all the books in Mudie's library, 

 seldom uses more than 3,000 or 4,000 words* in actual conver- 

 sation. Actual thinkers and close reasoners, who avoid vague 

 and general expressions, and wait till they find a word that 

 exactly fits their meaning, employ a larger stock, and eloquent 

 speakers may rise to the command of 10,000. " — Max Midler's 

 Lectures, p. 254. 



"Shakespeare," he says, " uses about 15,000 (a greater 



* It is not quite clear from the context what is to be understood by the term 

 "word" as here used. It probably excludes inflectional forms. If so, then, 

 considering that most substantives have one, most verbs three, inflections, it will 

 be necessary to double tlte estimates here made, to accord with my use of the 

 term. But this will not affect the broad question of the advantages of codification 

 materially. 



