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Graphology has long occupied an anomalous position among the sciences and pseudo-sciences. Few people have doubted that handwriting depended in certain ways upon the mental condition and nature of the writer, but those who have studied the matter in a critical spirit were for the most part convinced that our knowledge of the precise nature of the dependence in question was extremely small. Mr. Saudek has endeavoured to convert graphology from a potential to an actual science by rigorous insistence upon stringent scientific method. In his own words he 'has set himself the task of accepting none of the graphological doctrines hitherto accepted which cannot be proved, either by systematic experiment or by statistical inquiry'. The present book aims at bringing together all the results of graphology that have passed this test and at supplementing these results with the fruits of the author's own twenty-six years of research in this field. Mr. Saudek thinks that the book 'offers the basis of a new exact science'. If this claim can be justified, its appearance constitutes an event of very considerable importance in the history of science and the book itself may well become a classic.
The present reviewer does not possess any expert knowledge of graphology, and it is always difficult to judge the value of work in a field of which one is ignorant. A careful study of the book has, however, convinced him that Mr. Saudek has at the very least made out a case for the most thorough investigation and testing of his conclusions. The book very strongly suggests, in particular, that, in the future, experimental graphology may prove to be one of the most important weapons in the armoury of the psychologist, and that, if he neglects to use it, the psychologist may be responsible for seriously retarding the progress of his science.
But Mr. Saudek's book also makes it clear that the mastery of graphological technique is no easy matter; on the contrary, the complication and variety