The Detection of Forgery or a Study in Handwriting

The application of writing to the relations and business of mankind is multiform and the detection of forgery and proof of handwriting are factors of Ohne importance both in the domain of general business and in court Proceedings. [...] From the clumsy forgery by a village rustic of the scrabbling hand of his unlettered neighbour to the most finished imitation of the master forger of false bannotes and counterfeit government bonds that puzzles the minds of the best experts in the field —the courts have had to deal with questioned documents in all varied forms. [...] The skill of the specialist the trained legal acumen of the lawyer the sound common sells() that takes into account the deep-seated motives of a man's mind the art of the detective that seeks to find the secret springs of human action —all these have their appropriate places in bringing to light the hidden fraud and the dark design of the scheming forger. [...] the handwriting of every other person7." "The general rule which admits Of the proof of the handwriting of a person by experts who have compared the writing with other writings of the same person is founded on the reasop that in every man's writing there is a peculiar prevailing characteristic which distinguishes it from the handwriting of every other person and therefore that an expert by st [...] At the time of the inquest on the child who died from eating the poisoned choclates she forged a letter in the name of the coroner requesting the loan of the chemist's book for inspection at the inquest.