The Detection of Forgery / A Practical Handbook for the Use of Bankers, Solicitors, Magistrates' Clerks, and All Handling Suspected Documents

A PRACTICAL HANDBOOK FOR THE USE OF BANKERS, SOLICITORS, MAGISTRATES' CLERKS, AND ALL HANDLING SUSPECTED DOCUMENTS.
BY DOUGLAS BLACKBURN ( Late Expert to the Natal Criminal Investigation Department, and the Transvaal Republic ) AND Captain WAITHMAN CADDELL.
LONDON: CHARLES & EDWIN LAYTON, FARRINGDON STREET, E.C.
1909.
Owing to the averages given in the table on page 15 being printed from some incomplete manuscript they are incorrect. It is obvious that the proper averages are—

The object of this little work is to assist those who may occasionally be called upon to form an opinion as to the genuineness of signatures, alterations in cheques, and the varied doubtful documents that demand the serious consideration of business men by way of a preliminary to taking further steps.
It is the first attempt published in England to explain the principles upon which the comparison and examination of handwriting are conducted by experts. It is, and can only be, an outline of suggestions how to begin, for no two experts follow precisely the same methods, any more than two painters work on the same lines. Both agree in recognising certain rules and general principles, but each strives for his objective point by the employment of those means which experience, temperament, taste and opportunity suggest. The study of the elementary rules of their art puts them upon the road for perfecting it, after which success can only be attained by rightly reading the signs that lead to the ultimate goal.
In reading these chapters the student should begin by practising that self-help which is essential to success. He must read with pen and notebook. It is with the object of compelling this valuable habit that no illustrative examples are given in the text. It would have been easy to fill many pages with script illustrations, but experience shows that a much greater impression is made upon the memory by the hand forming the outlines described than if they were provided in pictorial form. In other words, the student should supply this purposeful omission by himself constructing the illustrations from the description. The trifling extra time and trouble thus demanded will be amply repaid by the ease and rapidity with which the various points will be fixed in the memory. Nor is this the only advantage to be gained. The act of reproducing the illustration cited will emphasise and render clear technical and mechanical features that would require many words to explain, with the attendant risk of confusing the mind by mere verbiage.