August, 1911. 



KNOWLEDGE. 



.503 





/h-Tc 



influence of age on hand- 

 writing and the meaning 

 of the expressions " famiK 

 Ukeness "" and "peculi- 

 aritv," we may proceed to 

 study some more examples. 



Peculiarities are astonishingly e.\- 

 hihited in some of these illustrations. 

 Take Figure 1, which shows the rapid 

 writer's trick of running the words 

 together; the peculiar formation of the 

 ■■ r " of "dear," and the " Ch " of 

 "Chandler." Figure 4 shows dr) father, 

 aged ahout seventw and two 

 sons, both of whom have inheri- 

 ted a peculiar capital " D," 

 " H ■" and '' K." In Figure 7 the ^^ 

 w riting is not a characteristic ~f^-* 

 one, but the " the "' in each 

 case is identical and the '■e'"s 

 are blind. But Figure 8 illus- 

 trates these features better : it 

 is the handwriting of a father 

 and son. and superficially one 

 would say there was no likeness between them : 

 but notice the capital " (" "s and " 15 '"s. the flourish 

 at the end of " Chandler " in the father (if) has 

 liecome a detached 



l-.ithL'r. 



te^C^^ 



b. Snil. 



/J^nt 



handwriting than boys at 

 . a corresponding age, which 

 writing does not change so 

 very much through life, 

 whereas a bo\- usually does 

 not begin to show his 

 characteristic and permanent hand- 

 writing until some \ears after he has 

 left school. 



There is a common st\'le of girl's 

 handwriting (something like Figure 2 

 (<r), but rounder and less characteristic) 



knc 



.^^^y--^ ,t^^^ 



Son. 



iMi.rKi. 4. 



The capital Iftters " D," " H " and " K " are 



pecnliar. and there is a strong Ukeness between 



a and /). 



dash in the son (b) \ 

 they both put "etc." 

 or its ecjnivaleiit after 

 " Builder " (whose 

 " e " is a Greek one 

 in both cases) and 

 they are liable to stop 

 the [len at the same places 

 — in the word "Chandler" 

 the\' both leave a space 

 after " h " and " n," in 

 " I>uilder " after " 1." and 

 in " Belvedere" after "%■" 

 and " e." This last in- 

 stance is ver\' curious : for 

 there is no apparent 

 reason for leaving the " e ' 



(^^^^/i&Zif^^ti^^^^ 



I'.itl 



>2^ 



/). Son 



I'na'KE 5. 

 The roundness of the writing in both cases is striking 



in the middle of the wore 



all by itself when the four letters both preceding and 

 following it are joined together. 



I have been unable to collect such striking sjieci- 

 mens of the hand- / 



writing of women as //^^^^ 



IS the " High School writing." 

 I suppose, because High School 

 girls write it, and if this does 

 not alter later it shows that 

 women write less character- 

 isticalh- than men : anyway, I 

 have met with " High School 

 girl's writing " in a woman of 

 thirtv, and I believe it would 

 be rare to find a man whose 

 handwriting had not altered 

 between sixteen and thirt\'. 

 These remarks appl\- to women who write a few 

 famiK- letters a week, and not to women in business, 

 who niight write as strong or as pronoimced a 



st\de of handwriting 

 as any man. 



In F'igure 2, there 

 is not much to choose 

 between brother and 

 sister, and Figure 7 

 seems more or less 

 weak and rambling, 

 but this \er\- weakness is 

 alike in both. 



A curious case is pre- 

 st'uted by Figure 4 {a) 

 which shows strong hand- 

 w riting for a man of 

 seventy, and whose pecu- 

 liarities are exhibited in 

 (h i.\: c) two of his sons, 

 but his eldest son. h'igure 5 \a) . writes totally 

 unlike the rest of the family, and yet he. Figure 

 5 Uf), has bequeathed his own handwriting to his 

 o\\ n eldest son. Figure 5 (/; 



Jt^ a/'^r:^1^^.-i::> 



^l^^cZ/. 



<<^ 



. l-lii.thir. 



That handwriting 

 is an acquired 



/X. ^-/.. 



'7 



^ 



7^. — "' 



h. Krother. 



j^ »--»- 



of men, and it mas' 



[irobably be taken as 



a general _^<^ 



rule that 



women do 



not write 



such char- 



acte ristic 



"hands" as 



men (the vast majority write very much less than pear that the 



besides, I fancv most girls on leaving school inherit the power of writm 



Figure 6. 

 The two handwritings arc almost indistinguishable. 



character there can 

 hardlv be any doubt. 

 We only 

 inherit the 

 p o \\ e r of 

 learning 

 to write, 



mem ners 



men) 



write a better u.c. more formed and permanent 



the 

 There 



are, nevertheless. 



though it 



would ap- 



a famih' ma\- 



in a particidar 



the questions 



