The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1883-11-10

of convex glasses is now fixed habit with
most people above forty years ofage. In the
Army Medical Museum, at Washington, may
be seen samples of Webb's microscopic tests
the Lords prayer of 227 letters written
with diamond on glass in the space of less
than three-hundredths of square inch, or
the Bible, containing three and one-half
million letters at the rate of eight complete
tables on a square inch of glass-and yet the
microscope easily resolves them. The same
kind of struggle has gone on between the
type and book-makers and the reading pub
lie. AS the types have been crowded and re-
duced, the paper made thin and
poor so that the print is even seen
through it, the convexity of glasses
has increased until it has now reached its
maximum. The diamond editions" of the
English novelists and the fine-print Libraries
which compress a thousand-page two-pound
novel into a hundred octave pages, weighing
but three or four ounces, are responsible for
much short-sighteduess and spectacle wear
ing. The Journal hatters itself that in the
typographical execution of its paper, these
faults are reduced to a minimum; the paper
is of first quality, the type of the best pat
tern extant, even if not of the theoretical
model admired by DR.. Joval; the lines are
properly loaded and the page of such con-
venient size as to readily be accommodated
to the natural focal distance without folding
the page or straining the eyes.
AS to handwriting, there is room for great
improvement in the character of letters used.
Paper is now so cheap that little attention
is paid to space used in writing. In hand
writing the waste of paper is not multiplied
by the number of the edition, as in printing.
The result is that since the invention of
printing writing has become constantly
larger, and the size of type has gradually d.
glasses. But in the time of Gutenberg the
written and printed characters were of the
same size
The character of modern handwriting has
been notably influenced by the kind of pen
used. The goose-ouill took the place of the
pointed reed in the middle of the seventh
century. With the elastic quill came shad-
ing-the shading of top strokes and capitals,
and finally the running of the letters
together by light lines, so that the copysts
and monks might rapidly multiply bibles
and sacred books. With the nib of the quill
cut square came the Gothic writing, which
is initiated now with stub steel pens.
The general adoption of the modern En-
glish style OF penmanship-distinguis by
the length of the looped letters and the alb
sence of shaded up strokes-ls a result OF the
very general use of pointed steel pens and
the uniformity secured by the use of printed
copies in schools.
AS it stands now, English handwriting is
infinitely palmer and easier to write than
the German; as much better, in fact, as En-
glsh type is superior to German. 1t is still
far from perfection as regards the main essen
tials of legibility and rapidity, Crossing the
is and dotting the is, with the addition OF
punctuation and diacritical marks still &C.
cupy much time, and may best be added in
the leisure of revision. There are many n.y.
gienic and physiological considerations dis
cussed by Dr. Joval indicating the defects of
the present system of expressing thought by
sound writing