Journal of Applied Microscopy 



and 



Laboratory Methods 



Volume VI. DECEMBER, 1903. Number 12. 



The Microscope and Expert Testimony. 



The microscope is indispensable if the facts regarding certain classes of ques- 

 tioned documents are to be known and shown. Such an instrument, however, 

 is still somewhat of a novelty in a court of law, because for so long a time the 

 juryman was not supposed to be able to see things for himself, but simply lis- 

 tened to reports of observations made by others and acted thereon. If the 

 observers disagreed he was helpless, as he still is regarding things disputed which 

 he cannot see and understand ; but now in many cases an intelligent juryman,, 

 judge or referee cannot be misled either by a lawyer who is opposed to the fact 

 or by witnesses who bear false witness. 



Questions arise in many ways in connection with a study of the various phases 

 of forgery which the microscope alone can answer, and in many cases its reply 

 is conclusive. The instrument is useful in this as in other fields because it 

 enables the observer to see clearly what otherwise is invisible or can be seen 

 only indistinctly ; and facts and phenomena are not less significant, if they actually 

 exist, simply because the unaided eye cannot see them. There is a whole micro- 

 scopic world, as real as the world of common things, and it is into this realm 

 that the microscope leads. 



The average unaided or naked eye can distinguish separate objects or lines 

 up to only about two hundred to the inch, more than this appearing as a solid 

 shade or tint. This being the fact it is easy to understand, for example, how far 

 beyond human sight are the individual red blood corpuscles when we know that 

 something more than three thousand of them laid side by side extend only an 

 inch. They are large compared with many microscopic objects, but are as far 

 away from unaided vision as the beautiful rings of Saturn were before the inven- 

 tion of the telescope. Many facts of importance in legal inquiries are also abso- 

 lutely invisible without the microscope, and without its assistance we may indeed 

 have eyes and see not. 



In law, inanimate things may become instruments of evidence and speak for 

 themselves, needing no other testimony, and justice is always served wheni 

 means are provided to more clearly show the facts. In the examination 

 of certain classes of forged writing an ordinary magnifying glass, enlarg- 

 ing only a few diameters, may answer, but the microscope with its corrected 

 objectives and various adjustments is often necessary to show facts which, when 

 thus shown, cannot be denied. 



(2^7) 



