304 



KNOWLEDGE. 



August, 1911. 



fi^'h^nc-, ^ '^ *'>— >A^ 



written mv name more than two or three times 

 ill his hfe. whilst the producer of /) has li\ed in 

 London for the past twenty-five years and has 

 wi'itten m\- name several thousand times. 



a. Sister. 



In the case of Figure j 



A-c\y^ 



h. tMSttT. 



Figure 7. 



The word '" the " should be specially noticed and the hand- 

 writing in these two instances is also nearly identical. 



of influence and imitation to be 

 considered. 



Charles Darwin, long ago. recog- 

 nised that handwriting was inherited, 

 and this idea may be found scat- 

 tered through scientific literature 

 as an axiom for the past fifty years, 

 but. so far as I know, it has not 

 been illustrated before. 



A friend, to wh<jm I mentioned 

 these enquiries, informed me that 

 he had frequently noticed that the 

 juniors in an office came to write 

 more like their chiefs as time went 

 on, and I have since heard the same state- 

 ment made by other people who had no 

 interest in the subject, but as I am unable 

 to produce any specimens it would not be 

 well to rel\- upon this, which appears to be 

 a clear case of environment and imitation 

 (conscious or unconscious). 



On the other hand, the writer of I'igure 

 1 (7 lives in Wales and has probably not 



17. Brother. 



b. Brother. 



the two brothers a 

 and (.■ were at school together, but /) is fifteen 

 ^■ears older and was educated entirely differently. 

 yet the youngest brother a writes more like his 

 eldest brother h than the middle one c. 



Belonging to the famih' ot I'igure 4 there are two 

 other brothers (besides Figure 5 mentioned above) 

 whose writing is quite unlike these specimens and it 



<^^^ ^^y^^^ 



If. 1 athei-. 



^^di^-^^ <i^^^^<, — 



The 



and 



U< 



c. Brother. 



Figure 9. 

 All these specimens are angular, while a and /) are very much alike. 



^/%^^a^^ 



h. Son. 

 Figure 8. 



capital ""Cs" and " B"s " should be examined 

 the spaces left between some of the letters are 

 also notew'orthy. 



seems more difficult to account for such 

 difterences than for many similarities. 



These illustrations are sufficient to 

 prove that handwriting is hereditary 

 (sometimes to a remarkable extent), and 

 in .some instances environment can ha\'e 

 had verv little to do with it, but in many 

 cases we know so little of the infiiiences 

 brought to bear upon such a flexible growth 

 as handwriting, that it is quite possible to 

 underestimate the effects of en\-ironment. 



