verbal description.

The following are the terms used in describing a letter:—

Letter means the whole of any script character, capital or small. For the sake of brevity in notes and reports capital is written Cp.; small, Sm.

Arc.—An arc is the curve formed inside the top loop or curve, as in f, m, h, o. In o, the inside top half of the letter is the arc; the inside bottom half is the hook.

Buckle.—The buckle is the separate stroke added to such letters as k, f, and capitals A, F, H.

Beard.—The beard is the preliminary stroke that often appears in capital letters.

Body.—The body of a letter is that portion of it which rests on the line and could be contained in a small circle. For example, in a small d the body consists of the circle and the final upward curve or toe. In a small g the body is the circle minus the tail.

Eye is the small circle formed by the continuation of a stroke as in the shoulder r.

Finals.—A final is the finishing stroke not carried beyond the shank in capitals, and in a few smalls like y, g, z.

Foot.—The foot of a letter is that portion of it that rests on the line. Small m has three feet, h has two, etc.

Hook.—The hook is the inside of a bottom curve. It is the opposite of the arc.

Link.—The link is that portion of the stroke which connects two letters.

Broken link.—A broken link is a disconnection in the link joining two letters.

Loop.—A loop is that portion of a letter which forms the top or tail. Unlooped tops and tails are called "barred." For example, small f has two loops, top and bottom; f, h, l have one top loop; g, y, z have one bottom loop.

Shank.—The shank of a letter is the principal long downstroke that forms the backbone.

Shoulder.—The shoulder is the outside of the top of the curve as seen in small m, n, o, h. Small m has three shoulders, n two, h one.

Spur.—The spur is to the small letter what the beard is to the capital. It is the initial stroke.

Tick.—A tick is a small stroke generally at the beginning of a letter, sometimes at the end.

Toe.—The toe is the concluding upward stroke of a letter, as seen in small e, n, h, &c.

Whirl.—The whirl is the upstroke in all looped letters. It is a continuation of the spur in b, h, f, l, and is always an upstroke.

CHAPTER IV.

Classes of Handwriting.

For convenience in differentiation, handwritings are divided into the following classes. Practically every type of writing can be placed in one of them.

Vertical Hand.—A vertical hand is one in which the tops and tails of letters form as nearly as possible a perpendicular with the horizontal line. The best example of this class of handwriting is that known as the Civil Service hand, familiar to the general public through telegrams and official documents.

Back Hand is a hand in which the general slope of the characters is from right to left.

Italian Hand is the reverse of a back hand, the slope being at an acute angle from left to right. It is a style fast going out of fashion, and is almost invariably the handwriting used by elderly ladies. Its most pronounced characteristic is its sharp angles and absence of curves.

Open Hand.—An open hand is one that generally approximates to the vertical, its distinguishing feature being the wide space between the letters. The best example of it is that known as the Cusack style of writing.

Closed Hand.—A closed hand is the opposite of an open hand, the letters being crowded together and generally long and narrow, with the slope from left to right.

Greek Hand.—This is the name given to a type of writing that closely approximates to the printed character. Many letters, both capital and small, are formed to imitate print, particularly the capitals T, X, Y, R, B, D, and the smalls e, f, g, h, j, k, p, r, t, v, w, x, y, z. It is a hand frequently found in the writings of classical scholars, literary men engaged in work entailing careful research, and often is an evidence of short sight.

The Wavy Hand is generally vertical. Its characteristic is an undulating serpentine waviness. Little or no distinction is made between barred or looped letters. There are no rounded shoulders to the m and n and the word minnie would be written by five small u's. In round-bodied letters like a, d, g, the circle is rarely completed, but is left open, so that small a becomes u, and small d may be mistaken for it, with the i undotted and t uncrossed. Despite its geometrical and caligraphic inaccuracy in detail, this hand is generally written with great regularity, that is, the characters, though incomplete, are always uniform in their irregularity. The e is never open, but is an undotted i, and n is u, but when the peculiarities of the writer become familiar this hand is often very legible.

Flat Hand.—A flat hand is a type of handwriting in which the characters have an oblate or flattened appearance, the o, a, g, &c., being horizontal ovals, like the minim and breve in music. The tails and tops are generally short, with wide loops. It is nearly always a vertical hand.

An Eccentric Hand is one that presents various marked peculiarities and departures from standard rules in the formation of certain letters, and cannot be placed in any recognised class, though it may approximate to one more than to another.

The Round or Clerical Hand is a writing that preserves a close affinity for the round regular hand of the average school-boy, with the difference that while the characters are formed on regular copybook model, the hand is written with considerable fluency and firmness. It is generally only a little out of the perpendicular, sloping slightly towards the right.

CHAPTER V.

How to Examine a Writing.

The examination of a writing generally consists in making a careful comparison between it and another or others, the object being to determine whether all are by the same hand.

The writing which is in a known hand or as to the authorship of which there is no doubt, is usually called the Original, and is always referred to by this name. The writing which has to be compared with it, and which practically forms the subject of the enquiry, is called the Suspect. The Suspects should be marked A, B, C, D, &c., and put away without examination until the Original has been thoroughly mastered. This is more important than may appear at first sight, for the confusing effect of having the two types of writing in the eye and mind before one type is made familiar is highly prejudicial. Any inclination to look at the Suspects first should be firmly resisted.

Let us assume that the object of the examination is to discover the writer of an anonymous letter—one of the most frequent tasks of the handwriting expert. The material in hand is the anonymous letter, which in