By wetting another piece of paper with a liquid compound acting as a
solvent of ink, and pressing it upon the paper marked with lines, a
thin layer of ink was transferred to the wet paper, and that shown
correctly which was the superposed ink at every one of the one hundred
points of crossing.

Many cases have occurred, in signatures written with different inks,
where some letters in one cross, some letters in another, in which it
becomes important to decide the order of sequence in writing. It is
also frequently important to decide the order of sequence in writing.
It is also frequently important when the genuineness of an addition,
as of a date, is the thing in dispute.

No subject can be more important or interesting to the business public
or especially to bankers than that of the reliability of the lists of
the genuineness of written papers. While it is true that in most cases
there is some ear-mark beside the appearance of a signature, whereby
to determine the genuineness of a document, it is also true that in
many cases, and frequently in cases of great magnitude, payments are
made on no other basis than the appearance of a writing. The most
common class of these last cases is where "A" has been long known to
be an endorser for "B," and where the connection between the two,
which leads to the endorsements, is well known. There is nothing in
the appearance in the market of a note of "B" endorsed by "A," that
is, in any degree calculated to excite suspicion or to put a
prospective purchaser upon his inquiry. If the endorsement of "A"
resembles his usual handwriting, it is almost always accepted as
genuine and if losses result from its proving to be counterfeit, they
are set down to the score, not of imprudence, but of unavoidable