126 



THE AMERICAN MONTHLY 



['^"ly, 



order that lie might collect the in- 

 surance, and gave the time and 

 place where the bargain was made. 

 The party accused claimed that he 

 was in another place at the time al- 

 leged, and brought in the register 

 of a hotel with his name signed to 

 it to prove his alibi. The signature 

 had every appearance of being ge- 

 nuine and headed a list of names 

 claiming to have been signed at 

 the alleged date, and the claim of 

 the defendant seemed strong. The 

 book was put into the hands of 

 Professor Babcock, who found that 

 the signature was written with an 

 ink which differed from that which 

 had been used on the pages imme- 

 diately before or afterwards, but 

 did correspond with ink which had 

 been used in the book some months 

 later. The surface also was rougher 

 than the other signatures, which 

 had been worn by the friction of 

 the leaves of the book against one 

 another in opening and shutting it,* 

 and several of the lines of the sig- 

 nature crossed lines in the signature 

 below, and were found to lie above 

 them. It was decided, as the result 

 of this, that a vacant line had been 

 left at the top of the page of the 



* Mr. Colegrove has related to me an in- 

 teresting case illustrating the effect of wear 

 on ink marks. A suit was brought against 

 him for part of the value of some goods 

 which were sold to him, as the party claimed, 

 for $15. He asserted that only $5 had been 

 charged for the goods, and brought in a re- 

 ceipt for the payment of the same. The 

 prosecution brought in their books, however, 

 and showed the charge against him of $15. 

 They alleged that the $5 was only part pay- 

 ment for the goods. Mr. Colegrove examined 

 the entry with the microscope and found 

 that the surface of all the writing on the 

 page, as well as that of the figure 5 in 15, 

 had been polished smooth by the friction of 

 the leaves in the book. The surface of the 

 figure I, however, in the 15, was rough and 

 stood up higher above the surface of the 

 paper than that of the 5 or any other writing 

 on the page. It could not, then, have been 

 subjected to the same amount of friction as 

 the writing, and must have been added later. 

 The prosecution failed to prove their claim. 



book, and that this name had been 

 interpolated some months later. 

 The man was convicted. 



Sometimes, when pale ink is 

 used, there is not body enough to 

 the ink to make a mass such as has 

 been described. In this case, it is 

 found by experiment that the ink 

 in the line last made will shade off 

 into the line first made and never 

 the other way. 



As an illustration of this may 

 be mentioned the case of a party 

 who was sued by an estate for 

 a certain sum of money. The 

 party sued claimed tliat the bill 

 had been paid in instalments at 

 different times, and brought into 

 court a receipt for a certain sum of 

 money in full up to date, as proof. 

 The parties prosecuting the case 

 acknowledged that part of the mo- 

 ney had been paid, and that so 

 much of the receipt was genuine, 

 but claimed that the remainder of 

 the money had not been paid, and 

 that the words in fuU up to date 

 had been interpolated and were 

 forgeries. The receipt was put in- 

 to Professor Babcock's hands to 

 examine. He found that these 

 words were at the end of the re- 

 ceipt, that they had been written in 

 a hand which differed from that of 

 the other parts of the receipt, and 

 with a different and paler ink. Two 

 or three of the lines of the words 

 crossed some of the lines of the 

 signature below. On examination 

 with a microscope there was no ap- 

 pearance of one mass above another, 

 but the ink had run from the Knes 

 of these words into the lines of the 

 signature, which they crossed, thus 

 showing that they had been written 

 after the signature, and, consequent- 

 ly, that they were interpolations. 



These facts about the crossing of 

 ink marks will not prove true when 

 we come to consider pencil marks. 

 A pencil leaves a film on the sur- 



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