ickening.

Therefore, recognising these facts, the expert is always extremely
careful in giving an opinion upon a writing produced by pencil or stylo
unless he have ample specimens of the writer's productions done with
these instruments.

At the same time, although an absence of characteristics present in pen
writing would be noticeable, the main features would exist: for example,
the space between words and letters would be the same; the dot over the
_i_ would be in its customary position; the bar of the _t_ would be of
the same type as heretofore. The principal changes would be in the
direction of a more uniform stroke with a tendency to greater rotundity.

Persons who habitually employ the stylo very frequently develop an
unconscious habit of twisting the pen at certain points so as to form a
deep, rounded dot. This occurs principally at the ends of words and
strokes. A magnifying-glass reveals this peculiarity at once, and, when
discovered, notice should be taken of the circumstances under which this
twisting is usually done. It will be found, most probably, that the
trick is uniform; that is, certain letters or strokes are mostly
finished with the dot.

There is a well-known public character who for years has employed no
other writing instrument but the stylo. His writing possesses one
peculiarity which is so habitual that in four hundred examples examined
it was absent in only five. He forms this twist dot at the end of the
last letter at the end of every line. The inference and explanation is
that, in raising the pen to travel back to the next line, he twists it
with a backward motion in harmony with the back movement. Another trick
is to make the same dot in words on which he appears to have halted or
hesitated before writing the next. In every such case there is an extra
wide space between the word ended by a dot and that which follows. It
would appear as if the writer mechanically made the dot while pausing to
choose the next word. This is a striking example of the unconscious
hand-gesture.

Something akin to it occurs in the handwriting of a famous lawyer. Here
and there in his letters will be noticed a faint, sloping, vertical
stroke, like a figure _1_. Those who have seen him write explain it
thus. While hesitating in the choice of a word he moves his pen up and
down over the paper, and unintentionally touches it. It is such slips as
these which often supply the expert with valuable clues to identity.