172 



HEREDITY AND EUGENICS 



pression of one's manner of doing things. It may be 

 neat or slovenly, run together or disconnected, large 

 and sho\\y or small and carefulh^ formed, with long 

 loops, precisely crossed t's, large capitals, long 

 flourishes, etc. In the hands of an expert these, and 

 many much more minute details, yield a remarkably 

 accurate analysis of the character and capacities of 

 the individual. The autograph is truly the product 

 of the whole man. If you write another man's name 

 you will write it differently from his autograph, unless 

 your characters reseinble each other, in w^hich case 

 3^ou ma}^ form the letters in a very similar way. 

 There is one man whose name I write almost exactly 

 as he does, and I know that our characters have many 

 points of resemblance. 



The anatysis of this relationship between character 

 and handwriting, a relationship which extends to the 

 minutest details, is worthy of scientific study. I 

 know of one woman, a teacher, who is almost in- 

 fallible in delineating the character of any person 

 whom she has never seen, from only a few lines of the 

 handwTiting. It seems to be a matter of sensing the 

 significance of different t3^pes of curves and various 

 other features of handwriting, as they blend together 

 in the expression of the character of the individual. 

 The mood of the individual, whether elated or suffering 

 from depression, is also registered in the hand- 

 writing. Indeed, the method is so accurate that 

 specimens of the handwriting could undoubtedly be 

 used to determine the character-traits of deceased 

 persons concerning w^hom insufficient evidence is 

 available in the study of mental inheritance. The 

 striking resemblances one sometimes sees in the hand- 

 writing of relatives is associated with inherited 

 similarities in character. Identical twins, however, 

 sometimes show fairl}^ marked differences in hand- 

 WTiting. This subject of the handwriting of twins 



