While it is possible to make a new ink look
old, the methods that must be employed, will of themselves
reveal to the examiner the attempted fraud, if
he but knows how to investigate.

How to accomplish this as well as to give a chronological
history on the subject of inks generally, both
as to their genesis, the effect of time and the elements,
the determination of the constituents and the constitution
of inks, their value as to lasting qualities, their
removal and restoration, is the object of this work.
There is also included many court cases where the
matter of ink was in controversy; information respecting
ancient MSS. and the implements and other accessories
of ink which have from time to time been
employed in the act of writing.

To make a comprehensive review of the past in its
relationship to ink has been my aim. In the construction
of this work recourse has been had to the so-
called original sources of information. In these, the
diversity of their incomplete statements about different
countries and epochs has offered many obstacles.
In presenting my own deductions and inferences, it is
with a desire to remove any impressions as to this
volume being a mere compilation. "Facts are the
data of all just reasoning, and the elements of all real
knowledge. It follows that he is a wise man who possesses
the greatest store of facts on a given subject.
A book, therefore, which assembles facts from their