Black's Law Dictionary

Anything done or taken in the course of routine or usual procedure, which is permissible and valid without being specially applied for and allowed.

That which is to be ascertained by the senses, or by the testimony of witnesses describing what they have perceived. Distinguished from matter of law.

See Form.

Whatever is to be ascertained or decided by the application of statutory rules or the principles and determinations or the law, as distinguished from the investigation of particula

Any judicial maiter or proceeding entered on the records of a court, and to be proved by the production of such reconi. It differs from matter in deed, which consists of facis whic

That which goes to the merits. The opposite of matter of form.

This phrase comprehends ali articles or things, whether animal or vegetable, living or dead, which are used fur food, and whether they are consumed in the form in which they are bo

6 Coke, 71. The desires of women are more mature than those of men; i. e., women arrive at maturity earlier than men.

In mercantile law. The time when a bill of exchange or promissory note becomes due. Story, Bills, § 329. Gll-bert v. Sprague, 88 III. App. 508; Wheelees v. Williams, 62 Miss. 371,

See Malicious.

L. Fr. In spite of; agalust the will of. Litt § 672.

Delirium tremens, or a species of temporary insanity resulting as a secondary effect produced by the excessive and protracted indulgence in intoxicating liquors. See State v. Hurle

The day preceding Good Friday, on which princes gave alms.

An established principle or proposition. A principle of law universally admitted, as being a correct statement of the law or as agreeable to natural reason. Coke defines a maxim to

The greatest enemies to peace are force and wrong. Co.. Litt. 161b.

Bacon. The people is the greatest master of error.

In French law. The government building of each commune. It contains the record offico of all civil acts and the list of voters; and it is there that political and municipal electio

in the construction of public statutes, is to be construed "must" in all cases where the legislature mean to impose a positive and absolute duty, and not merely to give a discretio

In criminal law. The act of unlawfully and violently depriving another of the use of such of his members as may render him less able, in fighting, either to defend himself or annoy

Maimed. This is a term of art which cannot be supplied in pleading by any other word, as mutilavit, truncavit, etc. 3 Thom. Co.. Litt 548; Com. v. Newell, 7 Mass. 247.

L. Fr. A hand; handwriting. Britt c. 28.

In Fr. A work of the hand; a thing produced by manual labor. Yearb. M. 4 Edw. III. 38.

The executive head of a municipal corporation; the governor ,or chief magistrate of a city. Waldo v. Wallace, 12 Ind. 577; Pcople v. New York, 25 Wend. (N. Y.) 36; Crovatt v. Mason

The office or dignity of a mayor.

In Spanish law. The right to the enjoyment of certain aggregate property, left with the condition thereon imposed that they are to pass in their integrity, perpetually, successivel

The wife of a mayor.

A court established in some cities, in which the mayor sits with the powers of a police judge or committing magistrate in respect to offenses committed within the city, and sometim

An inferior court having jurisdiction in civil cases where the whole cause of action arises within the city of London.

In Saxon law. Kindred; family.

An abbreviation for "Middle District," in reference to the division of the United States into judicial districts. Also an abbreviation for "Doctor of Medicine."

Ground somewhat watery, not' plowed, but covered with grass and flowers. Enc. Lond.

A tract of low or level land producing grass which is mown for hay. Webster. A tract which lies above the shore, and is overflowed by spring and extraordinary tides only, and yield

A rent formerly paid in meal.

To meander means to follow a winding or flexuous course; and when it is said, in a description of land, "thence with the meander of the river," it must mean a meandered line,—a lin

Lines run in surveying particular portions of the public lands which border on navigable rivers, not as boundaries of the tract, but for the purpose of defining the sinuosities of

A middle between two extremes, whether applied to persons, things or time,

1. The instrument or agency through which an end or purpose is accomplished. 2, Resources; available property; money or property, as an available instrumentality for effecting a pu

This term embraces all those resources from which the necessaries and comforts of life are or may be supplied, such as lands, goods, salaries, wages, or other sources of income. Me

Norman-French for a house. Litt §§ 74, 251

(Co.rruption of maison de Dieu.) A house of God; a monastery; religious house or hospital. See 39 Eliz. c. 5.

That by which extent or dimension is ascertained, either length, breadth, thickness, capacity or amount. Webster. The rule by which anything is adjusted or proportioned. —Measure o

The rule, or rather the system of rules, governing the adjustment or apportionment of damages as a compensation for injuries in actions at law.

In the ordinary sense of the word, "measure" would mean something by comparison with which we may ascertain what is the value of anything. When we consider, further, that value its

An officer In the city of London, who measured woolen clothes, coals, etc,

In old English law. A duty which some persons exacted, by letters patent, for every piece of cloth made, besides alnage. Now abolished.

A workman employed in shaping and uniting materials, such as wood, metal, etc., into some kind of structure, machine or other object, requiring the use of tools. Story v. Walker, 1

Having relation to or produced or accomplished by, the use of mechanism or machinery. Used chiefly in patent law. See compound terms infra. —Mechanical equivalent. A device which m

A device which may be substituted or adopted, instead of another, by any person skilled in the particular art from his knowledge of the art, and which is competent to perform the s

A mechanism transmitting power or motion from a driving part to a part to be driven ; a combination and arrangement of mechanical parts intended for the translation or transformati

See Process.

As distinguished from invention or inventive capacity, this term means such skill, intelligence, ingenuity, or constructive ability in the adaptation of means to ends as would be p

A spectes of lien created by statute in most of the states, which exists in favor of persons who have performed work or furnished material in and for the erection of a building. Th

In old records. A house or place where metheglin or mead, was made.

In old English law. A bribe or reward; a compensation, given in exchange, where the things exchanged were not of equal value. Cowell.

In Spanish law. Half-yearly profits of land. McMullen v. Hodge, 5 Tex. 34, 79.

In old English law. Midnight Ad mediam noctem, at midnight Fletui llb. 5, c. 5, § 31.

A man of middle fortune.

See Descent.

Those incident to primary powers given by a principal to his agent For example, the general authority given to collect, receive, and pay debts due by or to the principal is a prima

Secondary evidence, (q. vt)

Intervention; interposition; the act of a third person who interferes between two contending parties with a view to reconcile them or persuade them to adjust or settle their disput

One who interposes between parties at variance for the purpose of reconciling them. —Mediators of questions. In English law. Six persons authorized by statute, (27 Edw. III. St. 2,

In English law. Six persons authorized by statute, (27 Edw. III. St. 2, c. 24,) who, upon any question arising among merchants relating to unmerchantable wool, or undue packing, et

Pertaining, relating or belonging to the study and practice of medicine or the science and art of the investigation, prevention, cure, and alleviation of disease. —Medical evidence

Evidence furnished by medical men, testifying in their professional capacity as experts, or by standard treatises on medicine or surgery.

See Jurisprudence.

The practice of medicine is a pursuit very generally known and understood, and so also is that of surgery. The former includes the application and use of medicines and drugs for th

A box containing an assortment of medicines, required by statute to be carried by all vesseis above a certain tonnage.

Relating to the law concerning medical questions.

In old practice. Moiety of tongue; half-tongue. Applled to a jury impaneled in a cause consisting the one half of natives, and the other half of foreigners. See De Medietate Lingua

Men of a middle and base condition. Blount.

A judicial writ to distrain a lord for the acquitting of a mesne lord from a rent, which he had acknowledged in court not to belong to him. Reg. Jur. 129.

In Scotch law. Contemplation of flight; intention to abscond. 2 Kames, Eq. 14, 15

In old English law. Meantime; mesne profits. Cowell.

In old English law. A mixing together; a medley or mdlde; an affray or sudden encounter. An offense suddenly committed in an affray. The English word "medley" is preserved in the t

An affray; a sudden or casual fighting; a hand to band battle; a mMde See Chance-Medley; CHAun-MEDLEY.

In old English law. A bribe; hush money.

A harvest supper or entertainment given to laborers at harvest-home. Cowell.

A coming together of persons ; an assembly. Particularly, in law, an assembling of a number of persons for the purpose of discussing and acting upon some matter or matters in which

The so-called "delirium of grandeur" or "fulie de grandeur;" a form of mania in which the besetting delusion of the patient is that he is some person of great celebrity or exalted

In Saxon law. A recompense for the murder of a relation.

In old English law. A family.

In Fr. Minority; lesser age. Kelham.

In old English law. A household; staff or suite of attendants; a retinue; particularly, the royal household.

In Spanish law. Preferred ; advanced. White, New Recop. L 3, tit 10, c. 1, § 4.

In medical jurisprudence. A kind of mental unsoundness characterized by extreme depression of spirits, ill-grounded fears, delusions, and brooding over one particular subject or tr

In Saxon law. The recompense due and given to him who made discovery of any breach of penal laws committed by another person, called the "promoter's [i. e., informer's] fee." Whart

Lat. Better; the better. Melior res, the better (best) thing or chattel. Bract, fol. 60.

In Scotch law. Improvements of an estate, other than mere repairs; betterments. 1 Bell, Comm. 73. Occasionally used in English and American law In the sense of valuable and lasting

Co. Litt. 101. A bishop can make the condition of his own church better, but by no means worse.

Co. Litt. 337. A minor can make his own condition better, but by no means worse.

The condition of the party in possession is the better one, i. e., where the right of the parties is equal. Broom, Max. 715, 719.

The condition of the possessor is the better, and the condition of the defendant is better than that of the plaintiff. 4 Inst. 180; Broom, Max. 714, 719.

Jenk. Cent. 118. The condition of the possessor is the better where neither of the two has a right.

That justico which absolutely prevents [a crime] ls better than that which severely punishes it. 3 Inst. Epil.

2 Inst. 299. It is better to meet a thing in time than after an injury inflicted to seek a remedy.

Law that is deficient is better than law that is uncertain. Lofft, 395.

3 Inst. 23. It is better to suffer every ill than to consent to ill.

It is better to go to the fountain head than to follow little streamlets.

It is better to run back than to run badly; it is better to retrace one's steps than to proceed improperly. 4 Inst 176.