BIBLIOTICSOR THESTUDY OF DOCUMENTS, PERSIFOR FRAZER, 1901

The first attempt to separate a branch of study from other cognate branches ; to define it and to establish for it an individual existence, is not always successful. Any one man is likely to be too much influenced by his own point of view, and thereby to include too much or too little. But any earnest effort will be attended with the result of directing other minds to the subject, so that if the object be worthy, its evolution will be aided, and if not it
will be dropped. I have this conviction to fortify me for producing another book, and hope this subject will be given its final shape by abler hands if, as I believe, it has a reason for existing. I have suggested Bibhotics as its name, because ^t^kiov (book, sheet, scroll, libel at law, etc.) is broad enough to apply to any object which it may be desired to investigate, such as parchment, wax tablets, papyrus, printing-paper, stone, or, in fine, any substance capable of receiving and retaining characters. It will include hieroglyphics, writing, printing, or designs of any kind in- tended to impart specific information by symbols, in contradistinction to general impressions conveyed by art designs. It will include also the materials used to make vi FROM PEEFACE TO FIRST EDITION. tracings, such as paint, inks, and other coloring matters. In a word, Bibliotics would include the study of the
materials used in making designs for the transmission of intelligence, as well as the individual character exhibited in the designs themselves ; and though it is distinct from art conceptions, from literary or historical criticism, and from chemical and physical investigations, yet it accepts and needs the aid of all of these studies in obtaining its results. It will follow that Bibliotics as such is not exclusively concerned either with the establishing of character or the discovery of fraud, but includes both subjects. The first of these I venture to call Grammapheny, from rpd[i[ia,3, writing, and (paivo), I demonstrate. It is the elucidation of the individual character oL handwriting that by which it distinguishes itself from every other handwriting.
For the art of detecting forgery or fraud in documents, seals, writing materials, or in the characters themselves, I have suggested the word Plassopheny, from WAaaco,l forge, and (paivu). This study is directed to any part of a written or printed or sculptured record, and makes use of all resources to test its genuineness, but by its very nature it cannot be expected to demonstrate genuineness Qxcept by exclusion in its failure to demonstrate fraud. . . .
Philadelphia, June, 1894.