Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 59.djvu/460

450 it has been called the mode. The peculiar value of the mode lies in this, that it is not the result of calculation and is not an ideal value merely, but is the prevailing or typical actual condition. In biological statistics the mode should always be considered.

No single value can, however, adequately take the place of all the values obtained. Nevertheless, it is necessary to combine these data in some unit for purposes of comparison. .The best unit is the so-called frequency polygon.' The frequency polygon is got first by sorting out the data into a number of equally extensive 'classes'; then by laying off these classes as a series of points at equal intervals of space along a horizontal base-line; by erecting perpendiculars proportional to the frequency of each class, and by joining with a line the tops of all these perpendiculars. Or, if the tops be united by a flowing line, the frequency polygon is replaced by the frequency curve.

Such frequency polygons may also be obtained, without drawing on paper, by putting the individuals belonging to the same class in the same vertical column and arranging the columns in order along a common base-line. For example, we may separate our university students into stature classes as follows: 56 to 57.9 inches, 58 to 59.9, 60 to 61.9; 62 to 63.9; 64 to 65.9; 66 to 67.9; 68 to 69.9; 70 to 71.9; place those falling into the same stature class in a file; and place the files next each other in order, all starting from a common base-line. Then if we take a bird's-eye view' of this body of students, we get the frequency polygon of their statures (Fig. 2). The construction of frequency polygons may be illustrated by another example. The common scallop shells of the Atlantic coast have a variable number of