  We have measured the mean charged particle multiplicities separately for
bbbar, ccbar and light quark (uubar, ddbar, ssbar) initiated events produced in
e+e- annihilations at LEP. The data were recorded with the OPAL detector at
eleven different energies above Z0 peak, corresponding to the full statistics
collected at LPE1.5 and LEP2. The difference in mean charged and particle
multiplicities for bbbar and light quark events, delta_bl, measured over this
energy range is consistent with an energy independent behaviour, as predicted
by QCD, but is inconsistent with the prediction of a more phenomenological
approach which assumes that the multiplicity accompanying the decay of a heavy
quark is independent of the quark mass itself. Our results, which can be
combined into the single measurement delta_bl = 3.44+-0.40(stat)+-0.89(syst) at
a luminosity weighted average centre-of mass energy of 195 GeV, are also
consistent with an energy independent behaviour as extrapolated from lower
energy data.
