be cramped up in bed, writing on a book held in his lap, or he may be
in a mental strain that produces it.

There are minds so easily impressed with a sense of responsibility
that the writing or signing of any paper important in its bearing on
the writer or his property will cause him to disguise his hand to some
extent involuntarily, as many persons disguise their features
involuntarily when being photographed.

As to signatures especially, attention is called to the "tremor of
fraud," which is to be detected by the microscope, and stress is laid
upon the necessity of observing just where this tremor falls. If it is
in a difficult flourish of the signature and not elsewhere it indicates
fraud; or if it be tremulous to the eye, in imitation of the signature
of an aged person, a smooth, curved line may be the index of "the
difficulty experienced by a good penman in feigning to be a bad one."

The microscope is useful and valuable in determining whether erasures
have been made on paper. Also it will discover which of two crossed
lines was last written. It may determine whether the ragged edges of
the ink lines are those of fraud, illiteracy, or old age.

The practice of forging the names of depositors in banks to checks,
drafts, notes, and in fact to all papers representing a money value,
has been practiced, probably, since the creation of man. Of course the
law recognizes forgery as a serious crime, and everywhere the
punishment is severe. In the seventeenth century it was a capital
offense in England, and there were more persons executed for that
crime than there were for murder. Notwithstanding the rigorous penalty
prescribed in every state in the Union, forgery is carried on to an