The Democratic press. [volume] (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]) 1868-1901, 1886-03-25
SEEN THROUGH A GLASS.
The Use of the Microscope In Detecting
FOrgeries.


the microscope. DIR. Schaeffer is called
in as an expert microscopic in a great
many cases in the courts. This little
instrument is very valuable witness
sometimes" he said, as he put a slide
upon the microscope and addressed
himself to the scribe 1T is exceedingly
inquisitive and uncovers a great many
mysteries, not only of inanimate nature,
but of men. As its master, | am in
formed of many curious things. A great
many domestic tragedies which it
would not do to mention, have come
under my notice through it. Those in
that case" and he walked over to q
little glass-front cabinet on the wall
That contains parts of many we'll
known and some distinguished men,
and some OF whom are now living and
some others of whom are dead Some
very Interesting and curious incidents
of domestic character are brought to
my attention by folks who come to have
microscopic analyses made. Not very
long ago the result of one of these ana
lyses came near leading to tragedy
The principal things an expert micro
scopist is called for in the courts is to
testify as to blood ON clothing or some
thing of that sort in q murder trial, or
as to writing in cases of forgery. 1 can
tell instantly whether a stain is blood
or not, no matter how dim and indis-
tinct it is, and this is often most i'm
portant in the detection of crime"
''Can you distinguish animal blood
from human?' asked the reporter.
Il have frequently heard of expert
witnesses testifying that certain stains
were made by human blood. think
they are wrong to assume to so much
knowledge. The little corpuscles of
sleeps or dogs blood are, as a rule,
smaller than those of a mans. but it
has been discovered by careful study
that the largest of the sheep or other
animals and the smallest of the man
may be the same size. This of course
does away with all certainty of distinc-
ton. A birds blood may be disting-
uished from human, because its corpus
cles are of a different shape. But this
does not lessen the importance of dis
covering blood stains on a murderer's
clothing. The circumstances and other
evidences will do the rest.
'sSome of the most interesting cases"
he continued" ''are those of handwrit-
ing. / have had very thorough study
of this under the microscope, both as to
individuality of form and as to various
sorts of ink, and the effect of time and
condition upon them. 1 can very read
lily discover forgeries, interlineations or
erasures. do not think l could be de-
ceiyed in this unless the man that did
the work had the same facilities for do
ing it that have for detecting it-that
is, unless the forger was microscopic.
One case in which testified was where
a man was being sued on a bond in
volving Sf00,0U0. He acknowledged
that he had signed bond for one of
the parties named in the bond pro-
duced, but claimed that the second
name had been added since. The per-
son he signed for, he said, was reliable
and trustworthy, but the other person
was not, and he would never have
signed the bond had his name been up
on it at the time. ALI the writing on
the document was in the same hand and
appeared TO have been written at the
same time. Under the microscope /
discovered by the age of the ink, that
the second name had been added some
time after the paper was signed, and
that the pronoun him had been
changed to them whenever it occurred
ON the bond. Another case was called
into was where an old mans name had
been forged to notes by his son-in-law.
There were ninety notes for $1,000
each, which the old man pronounced
forgeries, and on examining them l
found them to be such. Without know
ing anything of his habits, l knew as
soon as | saw his genuine signature that
he always wrote it with gold pen. The
forgeries We're all written with steel
pen, and there We're enough points of
difference for me to be able to disting-
ish them from the genuine in every case.
In a murder trial in Maryland there
was curious case of forgery involved.
A faithless wife and her lover deter
mined to put troublesome husband
out of the way. The husband remarked
one morning at breakfast that the coffee
tasted strange. A few minutes later he
fell in a fit and died. At the inquest
note was produced purporting to be
from the deceased, written just before
his death, confessing that he had taken
his own life. Nobody could be found
who had ever seen any of the mans
writing except his signature, and that
appeared to be all right on the note.
There WAS nothing to compare the rest
of the writing with. Iexamined the note
very carefully, and found that while the
body of the manuscript was written
freely and naturally, as if by some one
used to writing, the signature was very
black and heavy and seemed to have
been drawn. Another thing was that,
while it must have taken considerable
pressure to make it SO black (the whole
was written with penciD, there was
no impression through the paper.
pronounced the note forgery. l knew
beyond a doubt that it was. The friends
of the widow threatened to kill the eN-
pert, but they gave up the note as de-
tense and took up another line, by
which they secured an acquittaL After
it was all over with, and the accused
could not be again put on trial. his sis
ter-in-law Dragged that she had written
the note and traced the signature from
an original by holding it against the
window-pane. The hard, smooth sur
face of the glass was what had prevent
ed the pencil lines from showing
through the paper. The question was
raised in another case as to whether
an erasure on bond for $4,000 had
been made before or after it had been
stamped with the magistrates seal. The
paper had a rough, woolly surface
where the erasure had been made, and
the impression of the seal had not
smoothed it down. This was held by
those who wanted to avoid the bond to
be an evidence that the erasure had
been made after the seal was put on. l
tested this under the microscope and
made experiments with seal, demon
strating that the seal was put on top of
the erasure. Cases of this sort are very
numerous and some of them get to be
interesting. But forgeries are not as
easily detected in the signatures as in
the body of the manuscript. The dot
ting of is and the crossing of 't's'
show most. There are, however, many
characteristics in most signatures that
can not be counterfeited so as not to
show the fraud if tested by micro
scope. y Washington Star.
Paper is about to monopolize another
branch of industry, which is no less a
one than the making of gentlemen s
L \ ID E