Legal Term Dictionary

In medical jurisprudence. A frequent manifestation of hysteria in women, in which the abdomen is inflated, simulating pregnancy; the patient aiding in the deception.

In medical jurisprudence. A frequent manifestation of hysteria in women, in which the abdomen is inflated, simulating pregnancy; the patient aiding in the deception. Less...

In medical jurisprudence. A method of investigating the origin and cause of any given disease or morbid condition by examination of the mental condition of the patient the application of various psychological tests, and an inquiry into the past history of the patient with a view to its bearing on More...

In medical jurisprudence. A method of investigating the origin and cause of any given disease or morbid condition by examination of the mental condition of the patient the application of various psychological tests, and an inquiry into the past history of the patient with a view to its bearing on his present psychic state. Less...

In the law of evidence. A fact which can only be perceived mentally; such as the motive by which a person is actuated. Burrill, Circ. Ev. 130, 131.

In the law of evidence. A fact which can only be perceived mentally; such as the motive by which a person is actuated. Burrill, Circ. Ev. 130, 131. Less...

A method or system of alleviating or curing certain forms of disease, particularly diseases of the nervous system or such as are traceable to nervous disorders, by suggestion, persuasion, encouragement, the inspiration of hope or confidence, the discouragement of morbid memories, associations, or beliefs, and other similar means addressed to More...

A method or system of alleviating or curing certain forms of disease, particularly diseases of the nervous system or such as are traceable to nervous disorders, by suggestion, persuasion, encouragement, the inspiration of hope or confidence, the discouragement of morbid memories, associations, or beliefs, and other similar means addressed to the mental state of the patient, without (or sometimes in conjunction with) the administration of drugs or other physical remedies. Less...

In medical jurisprudence. Alkaloidal products of the decomposition or putrefaction of albuminous substances, as, in animal and vegetable tissues. These are sometimes poisonous, but not invariably. Examples of poisonous ptomaines are those occurring in putrefying fish and the tyrotoxi-cons of decomposing miik and milk products.

In medical jurisprudence. Alkaloidal products of the decomposition or putrefaction of albuminous substances, as, in animal and vegetable tissues. These are sometimes poisonous, but not invariably. Examples of poisonous ptomaines are those occurring in putrefying fish and the tyrotoxi-cons of decomposing miik and milk products. Less...

The age of fourteen in males and twelve In females, when they are held fit for, and capable of contracting, marriage. Otherwise called the "age of consent to marriage." 1 Bl. Comm. 436; 2 Kent, Comm. 76. See State v. Pierson, 44 Ark. 265.

The age of fourteen in males and twelve In females, when they are held fit for, and capable of contracting, marriage. Otherwise called the "age of consent to marriage." 1 Bl. Comm. 436; 2 Kent, Comm. 76. See State v. Pierson, 44 Ark. 265. Less...

Pertaining to a state, nation, or whole community; proceeding from, relating to, or affecting the whole body of people or an entire community. Open to all; notorious. Common to all or many; general ; open to common use. Morgan v. Cree, 46 Vt 786 14 Am. Rep. 640; Crane v. More...

Pertaining to a state, nation, or whole community; proceeding from, relating to, or affecting the whole body of people or an entire community. Open to all; notorious. Common to all or many; general ; open to common use. Morgan v. Cree, 46 Vt 786 14 Am. Rep. 640; Crane v. Waters (C. C.) 10 Fed. 621; Austin v. Soule, 36 Vt. 650; Appeal of Eliot, 74 Conn. 586, 51 Ati. 558; O'Hara v. Miller, 1 Kulp (Pa.) 295. A distinction has been made between the terms "public" and "general." They are sometimes used as synonymous. The former term is applied strictly to that which concerns all the citizens and every member of the state; while the latter inctades a lesser, though Btill a large, portion of the community. 1 Greenl. Ev. ? 128. As a noun, the word "public" denotes the whole body politic, or the aggregate of the citizens of a state, district, or municipality. Knight v. Thomas, 93 Me. 494, 45 Atl. 499; State v. Luce, 9 Houst (Del.) 396, 32 Atl. 1076; Wyatt v. Irrigation Co., 1 Colo. App. 480, 29 Pac. 906. -Public appointments. Public offices or stations which are to be filled by the appointment of individuals, under authority of law, instead of by election.-Pnblio building. One of which the possession and use, as well as the Property in it are in the public. Pancoast v. 'roth, 34 N. J. Law, 383.-Pnblio law. That branch or department of law which is concerned with the state in its political or sovereign capacity, including constitutional and administrative law, and with the definition, regulation, and enforcement of rights in cases where the state is regarded as the subject of the right or object of the duty,-including criminal law and criminal procedure,-and the law of the state, considered in its quasi private personality, i. e., as capable of holding or exercising rights, or acquiring and dealing with property, m the character of an individual. See Holl. Jur. 106, 300. Tliat portion of law which is concerned with political conditions; that is to say, with the powers, rights, duties, capacities, and incapacities which are peculiar to political superiors, supreme and subordinate. Aust. Jur. "Public law," in one sense, is a designation given to "international law," as distinguished from the laws of a particular nation or state. In another sense, a law or statute that applies to the people generally of the nation or state adopting or enacting it, is denominated a public law, as contradistinguished from a private law, affecting only an individual or a small number of persons. Morgan v. Cree, 46 Vt. 773, 14 Am. Rep. 040.-Public offense. A public offense is an act or omission forbidden by law, and punishable as by law provided. Code Ala. 1886, 13699. Ford v. State. 7 Ind. App. 567, 35 N. E. 34; State v. Cantieny, 34 Minn. 1, 24 N. W. 458. -Pnblio passage. A right, subsisting in the public, to pass over a body of water, whether the land under it be public or owned by a private person.-Public plaoe. A place to which the general public has a right to resort; not necessarily a place devoted solely to the uses of the public, but a place which is in point of fact public rather than private, a place visited by many persons and usually accessible to the public. See State v. Welch, 88 Ind. 310; Gom-precht v. State, 36 Tex. Cr. R. 434, 37 S. W. 734; Russell v. Dyer, 40 N. H. 187; Roach v. Eugene, 23 Or. 376, 31 Pac 825; Taylor v. State, 22 Ala. 15.-Pnblio purpose In the law of taxation, eminent domain, etc., this is a term of classification to distinguish the objects for which, according to settled usage, the government is to provide, from, those which, by the like usage, are left to private interest inclination, or liberality. People v. Salem Tp. Board, 20 Mich. 485. 4 Am. Rep. 400. See Black, Const Law (3d Ed.) p. 454, et seq.-Pnblio service. A term applied in modern usage to the objects and enterprises of certain kinds of corporations, which specially serve the needs of the general public or conduce to the comfort and convenience of an entire community, such as railroads, gas, water, and electric light com-' panies.-PnbUo, trne, and notorious. The old form by which charges in the allegations in the ecclesiastical courts were described at the end of each particular.-Pnblio use, in constitutional provisions restricting the exercise of the right to take private property in virtue of eminent domain, means a use concerning the whole community as distinguished from particular Individuals. But each and every member of society need not be equally interested in such use. or be personally and directly affected by it; if the object is to satisfy a great public want or exigency, that is sufficient Gilmer v. Lime Point, 18 Cal. 229; Budd v. New York, 143 U. S. 517, 12 Sup. Ct 468, 36 L. Ed. 247.-Public ways. Highways, (q. t?.)-Pnblio welfare. The prosperity, well-being, or convenience of the public at large, or of a whole community, as distinguished from the advantage of an individual or limited class. See Shaver v. Starrett 4 Ohio St 499. As to public "Accounts," "Act," "Administrator," "Agent" "Attorney," "Auction." "Blockade," "Boundary," "Bridge," "Carrier," "Chapel," '^Charity," "Company," "Corporation," "Debt," "Document" "Domain," "Easement," "Enemy," "Ferry," "Funds," 'oGrant" "Health," "Holiday," "House," "Indecency," "Lands," "Market" "Minister," "Money,* "Notice," "Nuisance," "Officer," "Peace," "Policy," "Pond," "Printing," "Property," "Prosecutor," "Record," "Revenue," "River," "Road," "Sale," "School," "Seal," "Stock," "Store," "Tax," 'Trial," "Verdict" "Vessel," "War," "Works," "Worship," and "Wrongs," see those titles. Less...

In tbo civil law. A farmer of the public revenue; one who held a lease of some property from the public treasury. Dig. 39, 4, 1, 1; Id. 39, 4, 12, 3; Id. 39, 4, 13. In English law. Persons authorized by license to keep a public house, and retail More...

In tbo civil law. A farmer of the public revenue; one who held a lease of some property from the public treasury. Dig. 39, 4, 1, 1; Id. 39, 4, 12, 3; Id. 39, 4, 13. In English law. Persons authorized by license to keep a public house, and retail therein, for consumption on or off the premises where sold, all intoxicating liquors; also termed "licensed victuallers." Wharton. Less...

Lat In Roman law. A farmer of the customs; a publican. Calvin

Lat In Roman law. A farmer of the customs; a publican. Calvin Less...

1. The act of publishing anything or making it public; offering It to public notice, or rendering it accessible to public scrutiny. "2.AB descriptive of the publishing of laws and ordinances, "publication" means printing or otherwise reproducing copies of them and distributing them In such a manner as to make More...

1. The act of publishing anything or making it public; offering It to public notice, or rendering it accessible to public scrutiny. "2.AB descriptive of the publishing of laws and ordinances, "publication" means printing or otherwise reproducing copies of them and distributing them In such a manner as to make their contents easily accessible to the public; it forms no part of the enactment of the law. "Promulgation," on the other hand, seems to denote the proclamation or announcement of the edict or statute as a preliminary to its acquiring the force and operation of law. But the two terms are often used interchangeably. Chicago v. McCoy, 136 111. 344, 26 N. E. 363, 11 L. R. A. 413; Sholes v. State, 2 Pin. (Wis.) 499.""3. The formal declaration made by a testator at the time of signing his will that it is his last will and testament. 4 Kent, Comm.* 515, and note. In re Simpson, 56 How. Prac. (N. Y.) 134; Compton v. Mitton, 12 N. J. Law, 70; Lewis v. Lewis, 13 Barb. (N. Y.) 2a" "4. In the law of libel, publication denotes the act of making the defamatory matter known publicly, of disseminating it, or communicating it to one or more persons. Wilcox v. Moon, 63 Yt 481, 22 Atl. 80; Sproul v. Pillsbury, 72 Me. 20; Gambriil v. Schooley, 93 Md. 48, 48 Atl. 730, 52 L. R. A. 87, 86 Am. St Rep. 414." "5. In the practice of the states adopting the reformed procedure, and in some others, publication of a summons is the process of giving it currency as an advertisement in a newspaper, under the conditions prescribed by law, as a means of giving notice of the suit to a defendant upon whom personal service cannot be made." "6. In eqnity praetiee. The making public the depositions taken in a suit which have previously been kept private in the office of the examiner. Publication is said to pass when the depositions are so made public, or openly shown, and copies of them given out in order to the hearing of the cause. 3 Bl. Comm. 450.""7. In copyright law. The act of making public a book, writing, chart, map, etc.; that 1B, offering or communicating it to the public by the sale or distribution of copies. Keene v. Wheatley, 14 Fed. Cas. 180; Jewelers' Mercantile Agency v. Jewelers' Weekly Pub. Co., 155 N. Y. 241, 49 N. E. 872, 41 L. R. A. 846, 63 Am. St. Rep. mi." Less...