ifferences between specimens of genuine writing and
the instrument in controversy.

It is safe to presume that the apparently unreasonable position of the
law was assumed with a good object in view, and it is probable that
the object was the protection of the court from the swarm of so-called
experts which might be hatched by a laxity in the wording of the law.
Few things would be easier for a dishonest person than to swear he was
a competent expert, and then to swear that a document was, in his
opinion, forged or genuine, according to the requirements of his
hirer. The framers of the practice in reference to expert testimony on
documents seem to have had in mind that the only possible kind of
testimony as to documents was that based upon impressions; and that
the only method of coming to a conclusion was by giving words to the
first mental effect produced on a witness after he has looked at a
writing.

For this reason the practice has grown up in many trials of preparing
carefully forged signatures and producing them before the witness as a
test of how far he is able to distinguish genuine from forged
signatures.

However expert a witness may be, however successful in discriminations
of this kind, self-respect and a becoming modesty should induce him to
refuse to answer them without distinctly stating that his answer,
which gives his best judgment at the time, must be subject to reversal
if by longer and more thorough investigation it appear that the
opposite view were the true one.

When there is presented before a court of law a document, of which it
is important to know whether a part or the whole of the body, or the
signature, or all, is actually in the handwriting of some person whose
writing or signature in other exhibits is admitted to be genuine, the
counsel on each side usually seeks the aid of one or more handwriting
experts.

Usually a teacher of writing is called, but more often the cashier or
paying teller of a bank is preferred. There seems to be a good reason
for choosing a bank cashier or a paying teller, for the man upon whose
immediate judgment as to genuineness of signatures, reinforced by a
large and varied knowledge of human nature and quick observation of
any suspicious circumstances depends the safety of a bank, has
certainly gained much experience and is not apt to be easily deceived
in the kind of cases coming daily before him. How much the average
cashier and paying-teller depends upon