DENCE; WILL.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.-G. E. Harris, Identification (Albany, 1892) ; W. E. Bibliography.-G. E. Harris, Identification (Albany, 1892) ; W. E. Hagan, Disputed Handwriting (1894) ; J. Bouvier, Law Dictionary ( Boston and London, 189 7) ; J. Erskine, Principles of the Law of Scotland (21st. ed., 1911) ; J. P. Taylor, Treatise on the Law of Evidence (1 Ith. ed. 1920) . W. R.) The systematic attempt to read character from handwriting is termed graphology. Extravagant and unsubstantiated claims have been made in this field. Graphologists have organized a system of reading personality on the basis of such graphic elements as size, line-quality, slant, alignment, continuity and proportions above and below the line. Size has been claimed to be symptomatic of self-feeling. Unusually large handwriting is said to characterize the ambitious, imaginative person ; very small writing, the pedantic person. It is, however, recognized that there may be more than one cause for the same effect. Minute writing may be due to myopia; magnification of script may mask loss of motor control. The graphologists claim that slant and alignment are symptomatic of emotivity; extreme slant to the right betokens emotional sus ceptibility; to the left, coldness, emotional repression. Falling alignment signifies pessimism; rising alignment, optimism, ambi tion.
The psychology of handwriting puts graphological affirmations to the test. Binet, for example, checked by means of controlled experiments four assumptions of the graphologists, their claim to read from handwriting: sex, age, intelligence and character. He found that the success of graphologists in detecting sex from hand writing ranged from 63 to 78.8% and under favourable variable conditions might reach Inversions of sex signs were, how ever, common. Many women were found to write masculine hands and a few men feminine ones. A sexless hand was also discovered. The interpretation of the results is ambiguous since sex in writing may be an outcome of social factors. On the basis of differences in pressure, speed, size and rhythm, Meumann and Awramoff have also concluded that there are masculine and feminine writing types. Binet found the graphologists could estimate age on the average within about ten years. They were somewhat successful in separating the hands of geniuses from those of average indi viduals but could not select accurately the handwriting of crim inals. Other experimentalists have tested out other assumptions of the graphologists. Hull and Montgomery obtained negative results. Downey found some evidence of positive correlation be tween preoccupation with details and small filif orm writing and between an explosive psychic make-up and general pattern.
Identification of handwriting is a matter of great importance in law cases which involve questioned documents. The handwrit ing expert utilizes the enlarged photograph, the document micro scope, the colour microscope, designed for recording the tints and shades of ink and delicate scales for determining line-width and similar graphic details. He also applies stereoscopic photography to determine which line was written first, in the case of lines that cross, and to discover the presence of erasures and changes in paper-fibre. He has also stimulated discussions concerning the limits of variability and of disguise in the hands of individuals.
A curious modification of writing is found in reversed or mirror script which can be restored to the usual form by reflection from a mirror. It has been thought that mirror-writing is the normal writing of the left hand but it is sometimes written spontaneously by the right hand and it is a common occurrence among young children who are just learning to make letters or digits. The most famous instance of mirror-writing is that of Leonardo da Vinci. See CALLIGRAPHY.
(J. E. D.)