two words or
letters will be found to be alike. Thus it is not the similarity
between two pieces of writing that would arouse suspicion with some
experts, but rather the natural dissimilarity. Based on this point
such experts occupy a distinct position by themselves, since other
experts take what is called the positive side. With the first-named
class, however, handwriting is a science of negatives. A good
microscope will always be found a good detective in determining the
genuineness of handwriting.

By way of illustrating one method of forgery interesting material
which had played an important part in a court case was carefully
examined. It consisted of five or six graded photographic enlargements
of the duplicate signature which were carefully examined with the aid
of a microscope. The original had been made by an elderly person and
the forger had used the tracing process. To the naked eye it appeared
to be a capital copy; in fact, it seemed to bear every semblance of
being genuine. In the first enlargement of several diameters certain
inaccuracies of tracing could be discerned, only, however, after
attention had been called to them by an expert. In the next
enlargement these same errors were more apparent, and so on through
the series. The largest photograph was magnified several hundred
diameters greater than the original and stretched across quite an area
of paper. From an examination of this largest one with a microscope it
was evident that the forger first had traced his copy with pencil,
afterward going over it with ink, but so irregularly had his pen
followed the pencil lines that in certain portions of this enlargement
there was room for a man's fist between the first tracing and its inky
covering.

In trying to detect forged handwriting every letter of the alphabet,
wherever written, may be examined with a microscope for the following
characteristics: Size, shading, position relative to the horizontal
line, inclination relative to the vertical line, sharpness of the
curves and angles, proportion and relative position of the different
parts, and elaboration or extension of the extremities. In scarcely
one of these particulars can a man make two letters so much alike that
they cannot be distinguished by microscopical examination.

Although a great deal can be determined in a general way by close
observation with the naked eye, it is always best to employ some
magnifying power--usually an ordinary hand len