1880.] 



MICEOSCOPICAL JOLTKNAL. 



129 



same ; gum issoluble in water and pre- 

 cipitated by alcohol ; the resin which 

 is contained in varnish is soluble 

 in alcohol and precipitated by water. 

 Often when erasures have been 

 made, traces of the ink can be, de- 

 tected by the application of a solu- 

 tion of nut galls. Acids which 

 have been used to remove the ink 

 can, sometimes, be detected by 

 soaking the paper in water and 

 dipping blue litums paper into this 

 water, when it will turn red. 



Forgers sometimes resort to bold 

 and ingenious expedients to conceal 

 alterations which they make in 

 writing. An interesting case illus- 

 trating this was related by Professor 

 R. H. W^ard in his inaugural address 

 as president of the American So- 

 ciety of Microscopists. One party 

 sued another to recover the value 

 of a note. The defendant brought 

 a receipt into court claiming that 

 this receipt covered the face of the 

 note. The note, however, had a 

 date later than that of the receipt. 

 The defendant did not deny that the 

 note was genuine, but claimed that 

 it had been paid and that the date 

 was originally earlier than the date 

 of the receipt and had been chan- 

 ged to its present date for purposes 

 of fraud. Two figures of the date 

 of the note were written in a hand- 

 writing which differed from the 

 body of the note. The prosecution 

 claimed, however, that there had 

 been no change, but that the note 

 had been filled out several days be- 

 fore it was signed, and the places 

 of these figures had been left blank 

 until the time of the signatures. 

 The note was put into Professor 

 Ward's hands for examination. The 

 body of the note was written in a 

 small hand with pale ink ; the 

 figures in question were written in 

 a bold hand with black ink. There 

 was no evidence of erasure, nor any 

 change in the surface of the paper 



indicating that it had been tampered 

 with. On examining the figures 

 with the microscope, he could at 

 first find no evidence to prove that 

 any other figure had been written 

 in the location of the present figures, 

 but by changing the illumination 

 and resorting to a number of ex- 

 pedients, he at last discovered the 

 faint outlines of a figure corres- 

 ponding in size and shape with 

 those of the other figures of the 

 body of the note. This figure in- 

 dicated a date earlier than the date 

 of the receipt and corresponded 

 with the statements of the defen- 

 dant, thus proving that the bolder 

 figures were forgeries. 



It is often of use to study the 

 paper itself with the microscope, 

 for forgeries are often written upon 

 paper which could not have been 

 used by the original parties. The 

 fibre of which the paper is made 

 whether of linen, cotton, straw, 

 wood or other material can be re- 

 cognized with the microscope. Much 

 can be learned by studying the wa- 

 ter-marks of the paper which differ 

 in different manufactures. Even the 

 arrangement of the fibre itself can 

 sometimes be studied with profit. 

 In ordinary paper the fibres cross 

 irregularly in every direction, but 

 in paper made by some of the mo- 

 dern machines, most of the fibres 

 run in one way, so that the paper 

 tears more easily in one direction 

 than another. Other accidental pe- 

 culiarities in the paper may be no- 

 ticed such as spots or grease marks ; 

 indeed nothing seems unworthy of 

 attention. 



Chicago, December 1879. 

 o 



Local Scientiflc Societies.* 



On the 14th of November, a little 

 more than two years ago, the first 



* Abstract of an address delivered by the 

 President before the New York Microsco- 

 pical Society, February 20th, i88o. 



