1886.] 4dO [Frazer. 



naturally exhibit deviations except within a defined variation and in cer- 

 tain limited areas adjacent to the separate letters. It is thus as great an 

 assistance to the observer to study the variations, as to study the ideal sig- 

 nature. Indeed, the variations are all important in the matter of identifi- 

 cation, and if tbere were no variations the method would be inapplicable, 

 because an exact copy might be made by tracing. A comparatively 

 small number ot signatures will give the maximum and minimum 

 of variation in any given region of one of the letters forming it. More- 

 over, the kind of variation is easily observed where there are a number 

 together, so that the most perfect adept at forgery could hardly hope 

 to simulate the microscopically minute characteristics of variations which 

 are simply the visible expression of a series of indefinitely complex rela- 

 tions of muscle and nerve. 



In a case which was recently brought before the Orphans' Court in 

 Philadelphia, this principle of composite photography was for the first 

 time applied by me to the purpose of identifying handwriting, and from 

 the experience thus far gained, it is thought that it will (at least in many 

 cases) more surely lead to the truth than will the mere opinions of the 

 most skillful expert. 



Philadelphia, January 19, 18S6. 



We judge of force and weakness ; of the stability and instability ; of ex- 

 pression and character chiefly by applying the experience that we have 

 gained through the observations of our lives to the images we see before 

 us. In the more complex studies of nature the image is rendered in 

 colors and their shades, and all these increase almost indefinitely the deli- 

 cate phases and modifications of the thought which is suggested. They 

 are just so many words added to the language in which external nature 

 speaks to us. 



But an almost infinite number of facts are impressed on our minds with 

 convincing force without recourse to other than the plainest and simplest 

 combinations of lines. A being, whether civilized or savage, recognizes in- 

 stantly the impossibility of a tree growing with its roots in the air, or a man 

 standing on the vertical face of a wall. The French caricaturists have 

 demonstrated how much of character and expression may be given by a 

 few lines which when looked at minutely resemble the scrawls of an infant 

 on a sheet of paper, yet when viewed from a certain distance in its general 

 effect tell us a whole story without the use of a word. It is undeniable 

 that the power to do this is based upon the fact that certain accentuated 

 lines appear in the figures of men and things under a given set of circum- 

 stances, and by taking these and omitting all else we have a sort of skele- 

 ton image divested of unessentials. This skeleton image is in its way a 

 sort of composite, arrived at, it is true, by a different method from that here 

 employed, but nevertheless representing the sum of the artist's experiences 

 in a great many more or less similar cases, and the greatness of the his- 

 torical painter lies just in his power to represent an important event or 



