the most difficult of
detection, as the internal evidence of forgery by tracing is mostly
absent. The evidence of free-hand forgery is chiefly in the greater
liability of the forger to inject into the writing his own unconscious
habit, and to fail to reproduce with sufficient accuracy that of the
original writing, so that when subjected to rigid analysis and
microscopic inspection, the spuriousness is made manifest and
demonstrable. Specific attention should be given to any hesitancy in
form or movement, manifest in angularity or change of direction of
lines, changed relations and proportions of letters, slant of the
writing, its mechanical arrangement, disconnected lines, retouched
shades, etc.

Photographs, greatly enlarged, of both the signatures in question and
the exemplars placed side by side for comparison will greatly aid in
making plain any evidences of forgery by tracing.

It sometimes occurs that the forger, fearful that his attempt to
imitate another's writing would be too easily detected if made with a
free hand, sketches in pencil the characters he intends to make in ink
on the document, or traces them by means of blackened paper at the
appropriate place. The evidences of this are very likely to appear
when the document is examined in transmitted light.

It is often asserted in trials that tracings of a genuine signature
invariably show hesitation and painting. This is not always the fact.
Tracings proven and subsequently admitted to have been such have shown
an apparent absence of all constraint, and a careful examination of
the result revealed no pause of the pen. But, on the other hand, these
freely written tracings have invariably shown either a deviation from
some habitual practice of the writer, or, if the model was followed
with skill, two or three such tracings, when photographed on a
transparent film and superposed, have shown such exact resemblances as
to proclaim their character at once.

The natural tendency of man is to introduce some elements of symbolism
in what he is attempting to trace and to seek some sort of geometrical
symmetry in what he designs. Wherever he is not restricted by certain
forms which he must introduce, and which may render a balance of parts
about a median line unattainable, he tends to evolve symmetrical
designs, as in the highest and simplest forms of ancient architecture.
When the parts of the design are prescribed, as in the representation
of objects in nature,