Evening star., 1922-02-25
"The Psychological
Detective. "
One of The Stars Weekend Fiction Series,
Complete in Three Installments.
BY ARTHUR B. REEVE.

| letter appeared on the screen: He said
nothing. but let us read it through.
To Whom it May Concern:
This Is to certify that Bridget
family at Shelter Island for the past
| season. and that l have found her a
reliable servant and an excellent
cook.
A. ST. JOHN CASWELL-JONES.
Before God. Mr.. Kennedy. I'm in
nocent. I'm innocent"
Craig gently. but firmly. forced her
back into her chair.
Again the announcer snapped. This
time the last page of Mr.. Bisbee's
will appeared on the sheet. ending
I'm now going to show these TWO
specimens Of handwriting very great
ly enlarged" he said, as the stereop-
ticon plates were shifted again.
AN author of many sclentihc
works. DR.. Lindsay Johnson of Lon
! theory with regard to individuality In
handwriting. He maintains that in
certain diseases persons pulse
beats are individual. and that no one
suffering from any such diseases can
control. even for brief space OF
| time. the frequency or peculiar irreg-
ularities of his hearts action. as
shown by a chart recording his pull
sation. Such a chart is obtained for
medical purposes by means of
sphygmograph. an instrument fitted
to the patients forearm and supplied
{! with needle, which can be so ar
i ranged as TO record automatically on
prepared sheet Cf paper the pc
culiar force and frequency of the pull
sation. Or the pulsation may be sim
ply observed in the rise and fall of
| liquid in a tube. DIR. Johnson holds
the opinion that pen in the hand OF
writer serves, in a modified degree,
| the same end as the needle sphygmo
graph. and that in such persons
handwriting one can see by project
i ing the letters. greatly magnified. on
! a screen. the scarcely perceptible
| turns and quivers made in the lines
by the spontaneous action of that
persons peculiar pulsation.
TO prove this. the doctor carried
out an experiment at Charing Cross
| Hospital. AT his request a number
of patients suffering from heart and
kidney diseases wrote the Lords
prayer in their ordinary handwrit-
ing. The different manuscripts were
| then taken and examined microscopic
| cally. BY throwing them, highly mag
i nified. on screen the jerks or in
| voluntary motions due to the patients
peculiar pulsations were distinctly
| visible. The handwriting of persons
in normal health, says DIR. Johnson
| beats. What one can say, however, is
! that when a document purporting to
| be written by a certain person con-
I tainS traces of pulse beats and the
normal handwriting Of that person
does not show them, then clearly that
document Is a forgery.
+! Nov. in these two specimens of
! handwriting which we have enlarged
! it is plain that the writer's of both of
! them suffered from a certain peculiar
disease Of the heart. Moreover, l am
prepared to show that the pulse
| in similar strokes in the other.
| Furthermore. have ascertained
from his family physician. whose
affidavit l have here. that Mr..
Bisbce did not suffer from this or any
! other form of heart disease . Mr.. Cas-
well-Jones. in addition to wiring me
! that he refused to write Bridget Fall
| lon a recomrpe ndation after the ty-
J phofd broke in his country house.
| also says he does not suffer from
heart disease in any form. From the
! tremulous character nf the letters and
figures in both these documents.
! which were magnified.I therefore
/ conclude that both are forgeries. and
l am ready to go further and say
| they are forseries from the same
hand.
! 1T usually takes couple of weeks
| after infection for typhoid to de-
/ velop, a time sufficient in itself to
! remove suspicion from acts which
| might otherwise be scrutinized very
carefully II happeing Immediately
, before the disease developed. / may
! add, also that it Is well known that
| stout people do very poorly when
| they contract typhoid. especially if
| they ara old. Mr.. Bisbee was both
stout and old. To contract typhoid
s., was for him virtual death warrant
Knowing all these facts. a certain
. person purposely sought out a crafty
+, means of introducing typhoid fever
into MIR. Bisbee's family. That person.
, Furthermore. was inoculated against
| typhoid three times during the month
! before the disease was devilishly and
surreptitiously introduced into Bisbee
| Hall, in order to protect himself or
| herself should it become necessary
| for that person to visit Bisbee Hall.
That person, l believe. is the one
who suffered from an aneurism of the
! heart, the writer. or rather the forger
, of the two documents l have shown.
by one of which he or she was to
profit greatly by the death of Mr.
: Bisbee and the founding of an alleged
school in distant part of the
! country-a subterfuge. If you recall,
! used in at least one famous case for
| which the convicted perpetrator is