Review: The Problem of Proof
| DOI | 10.1177/0032258X3300600423 |
| Published date | 01 October 1933 |
| Date | 01 October 1933 |
| Subject Matter | Review |
508
THE
POLICE JOURNAL
THE
PROBLEM
OF
PROOF
(ESPECIALLY
AS
EXEMPLIFIED
IN
DISPUTED
DOCUMENT
TRIALS).
By
ALBERT
S.
OSBORN.
Second Edition. (Newark,
New Jersey,
The
Essex Press.)
THIS book, which first appeared in the year
1922
is the work of
the
author
of Questioned Documents which has done so much to
put
the identification
of handwriting on a proper scientific basis.
Its
main purpose is to help the
lawyer who has a case to try in which it is necessary to prove the facts relating
to a disputed document,
but
it deals with many general and special matters.
The
latter now have been collected together at the beginning of the book
and range from the aid which can be given by the specialist and his co-
operation with the lawyer, to the designing and lighting of court rooms.
Later on, such topics are discussed as the obtaining of standards of com-
parison; photographs, cross examination- both from the standpoint of the
witness and from that of the lawyer, while handwriting testimony of lay
witnesses and errors in the identification of handwriting come in for attention.
The
book must have gone far to strengthen the position which Mr.
Osborn has gained for himself.
It
should also have made his work easier
when the lawyers associated with him have learned from it how to make the
most of his evidence and how to unmask uninformed witnesses who have
appeared on the other side.
CONTESTED
DOCUMENTS
AND
FORGERIES.
By F.
BREWSTER,
Document Specialist, with an Introduction by SIR N. W.
SIRCAR,
Advocate-General, Bengal.
(The
Book Company Limited, Calcutta.)
Price 16.8 Rupees.
MR.
BREWSTER
has written a very useful and interesting book.
It
is of special
value to those who have to deal with the wealth of forged documents which
are produced in India, for the writer has gained his experience there and
discusses the many Indian scripts, reed pens, the inks in common use in
India and
the
peculiarities of the paper made locally.
At the same time it must be said
that
the great bulk of the work will
be of considerable help to anyone in this or indeed any other country who
has to learn how to determine the genuineness of documents, or the identity
or otherwise of two sets of handwriting or typewriting.
As finger prints are used all over India as signatures, it would be sur-
prising if these were not forged at times. A chapter on them is therefore
most appropriate and Mr. Brewster is the first author to give illustrations of
forged finger prints, and to deal with them in detail.
As some of us are aware, it is the money lenders who have more parti-
cularly made use of forged finger prints in India, and Mr. Brewster says
that
their method is a very cheap and simple one, though he very wisely refrains
from describing it.
He says
that
he has not come across finger prints which have been
reproduced by photography, although writers of fiction have based their
stories upon this method.
In the British Isles examiners of documents do not often have to deal
with finger prints intentionally applied to them,
but
the identification of
wrong-doers by means of finger prints is a matter, one may say, of general
interest.
The
method is of the utmost value
but
it is not infallible, for it
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