discussion
“This article opened my eyes to delicious dates and their interesting history.” Document Detectives “Invisible Evidence” (November/December 2022) is a fascinating piece about how mass spectrometry of proteins found on old documents might provide evidence of the medical condition of the author. But how can one sample from one document be relied on to reach any definitive conclusion? We could reasonably expect that powerful figures often depended on servants, who presumably would also assist with documents. How were these documents handled after being written? Can anyone really know? Evidence, yes. Diagnosis, only perhaps. Larry W. Wolf | Gettysburg, Pennsylvania “Invisible Evidence” brought to my mind stamps, which used to be licked before being stuck on envelopes. Many collections contain the stamps used for sending important letters starting around the 1840s. The sealed undersides of…