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The article presents information on examination of papers in questioned documents. The tests used in the scientific examination of questioned documents are many and varied. One examination may concern a specimen of typewriting and the determination of the make and model and perhaps the year of manufacture of the typewriter. The tests used to establish this involve the precise measurement of the shape and size of the letters, and their comparison with known standards. The problem may involve deciding whether two samples of handwriting were made by the same person. One of the most important matters is that involving the establishment of the difference or identity of two or more samples of paper stock. Tests were performed with the Herzberg and the Lofton Merritt stains. Small samples were cut out for this experiment. This would not necessarily be required as the procedure can readily be modified to be used as a spot test on the original sheet. This technique proves to be quite valuable as a corroborating demonstration that specimens of paper from questioned documents are either similar or dissimilar.

The authors are well known to our readers for their excellent papers dealing with various methods of adenifie investigation of evidence. Both have been member, of the staff of the Laboratory of the California State Division of Criminal Identification and Investigation for a number of years. Roger S. Greene was appointed as a Criminologist at this Laboratory In 1931, following his graduation from the University of California, and has served continuously except for three years military service during World War IL David Q. Burd joined the laboratory In 1942 shortly after receiving a B.S. degree in Technical Criminology from the University of California. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Paul L. Kirk, Ph.D., has contributed a number of outstanding papers to this JOURNAL and has for several years served as an Associate Editor on our Editorial Board. He is Professor of Biochemistry, School of Medicine, University of California, Berkeley, and last year was also appointed Professor of Criminalistics in the newly established School of Criminology of the University. Anthony Longhetti is a graduate of the University of California where last year he served as an assistant to Professor Kirk. He has recently been appointed to the staff of the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article comment on physician I. M. Rabinowitch's paper on medical and legal aspects of chemical tests of alcoholic intoxication. First of all the article author points out that the National Safety Council's Committee on Tests for Intoxication has never claimed that chemical tests for intoxication are foolproof. Obviously they are subject to all those errors which are characteristically human. What the Committee has maintained was that when properly conducted, chemical analyses of blood, urine, breath, or saliva for their alcohol content give values which reliably reflect the degree of alcohol influence within the limitations of the Committee's recommended interpretation. It will be noted that under the Committee's recommendation, the finding of 0.15% or more of alcohol in the respondent's blood sets up a presumption that he was under the influence of intoxicating liquor. In any criminal case the defendant goes into court with a presumption of innocence and the representatives of society are required to establish proof of his guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.