Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-03-30

Bad penmGn Shakespeare. Only sic OF
his ScrGtCling autographs haze been
found, and no actual portrait is knO1On,
though this engraving is thought to be
from a sketch from life.
that people who are preoccupied with details
are ant to turn out small fine writing. She
also found that people with what she terms an
explosive temperament, that IS, readily ex-
presSive persons, have style of writing that IS
more light and flowing than people who are
'inhibitive" or oYer-repreSsed, by temperament.
This particular finding she considers the most
promising discovery of temperament as eK-
pressed in handwriting SO far made
A LFRED BINET, noted French psychologist,
gained the confidence Of psychologists
sufficiently to test their success and failure in
reading certain facts from handwriting.
His experiments show that it is possible
to guess the age of a penman within about
ten years from his writing" DR.. Downey de-
clares. But the possibility of ten years error
in the ordinary lifetime range OF threeSc0re
wears and ten would render this ValueleSS In
any practical situation, such as estimating the
age of a kidnaper or thief who might nave
left an discriminating note
One difficulty in reading an individuals age
precisely from his writing is that some people
continue to write a childish fist long after
they are away from copybook influences. THIS
does not mean that they are immature, Dr.
DOwney explained. Far from it, nteliectu"
ally precocious young men with this pecuIiarlCy
have come to her attention. She tentatively
explains their cases by suggesting that people
whose writing natures late are OF Sensory
makeup"
They are of the thinking, inactive type which
is sensitive to the impressions of sight, hearing
and touch, from the outer world, and which Is
more likely to excel at brain work than at ply
steal skill. Those whose writing natures early,
on the contrary, of a. motor makeup.
she believes These would be people OF an &C
tive type using the hands and the rest OF the
body with ease and skill.
NRINET and other Investigators have also
shown that it is possible to tell the sex OF
a pennan with considerable accuracy" DIR.
DOwney continues. They call attention, how.
ever to the fact that some women write dis
tinctly masculine hand, and few men write
feminine hand. An occasional individual writes
what We may call sexlesS hand"
1t is a debatable point she believes, the de-
gree to which sex in handwriting is due to
inner traits of the penman or to the outer in
fluence of established social codes.
Society looks indulgently upon a scrawling
male signature. But women are expected to
write neat and pleasing script, and usually
try. she pofnts out.
Your own estimate of age and sex based ON
handwriting is about good as any experts"
the experiments indicate. Binet found that ex-
perience in studying handwriting did not give
advantage in such judgments. The same
found to be true in very recent test at a
California State teachers college. In this case
amateur judges gave their opinion of sex repre-
Sented by penmanship samples, and the gueSSeS
up a score Of two out of three correct
These judges associated with masculine writing
such traits as irreguarity, uneven form, angles
and individual slant. Feminine writing was
characterized by regularity, curves, conven-
tiOnal form and uniformity.
Curious changes take place in the hand
writing of individuals suffering from diseases,
and experts too hasty in applying little un-
tested knowledge have not hesitated to say that
. doctor could diagnose patients condition
from day to day by examining q current piece
OF his handwriting sent to the doctors Office.
Mental diseases appear to set particularly
aal1neylN eid sN0Mt hunasAsa SAl arp
Continued Rsve3T lttrtesRH Rage