DEMAND IN RECONVENTION. In Louisiana, this term is used to signify the demand which the defendant¹ institutes in consequence of that which the plaintiff has brought against him. Code of Pr. art. 374. Vide Cross action.

DEFANDANT, practice. The plaintiff or party who brings a real action, is called the demandant. Co. Litt. 127; 1 Com. Dig. 85.

DEMENCY, dementia, med. jur. A defect, hebetude, or imbecility of the under standing², general or partial, but confined to individual faculties³ of the mind, particularly those concerned in associating and comparing ideas, whence proceeds great, confusion and incapacity in arranging the thoughts. 1 Chit. Med. Jur. 351; Cyclop. Practical Med. tit. Insanity⁴; Ray, Med. Jur. ch. 9; 1 -Beck's Med. Jur. 547.

2. Demency is attended with a general enfeeblement of the moral and intellectual faculties, consequence of age or disease, which were originally well developed and sound. It is characterised by forgetfulness of the past; indifference⁵ to the present and future, and a childish disposition⁶. It differs from idiocy⁷ and imbecility. In these latter, the powers of the mind were never possessed⁸, while in demency, they have been lost.

3. Demency may also be distinguished⁹ from mania¹⁰, with which it is sometimes confounded. In the former, the mind has lost its strength, and thereby¹¹ the reasoning faculty¹² is impaired¹³; while in the latter, the madness arises from an exaltation of vital power, or from a morbid¹⁴ excess of activity.

4. Demency is divided into acute and chronic¹⁵. The former is a consequence of temporary errors of regimen, fevers, hemorrhages, &c., and is susceptible¹⁶ of cure the latter, or chronic demency, may succeed mania, apoplexy, epilepsy, masturbation, and drunkenness, but is generally that incurable¹⁷ decay of the mind which occurs in old age.

5. When demency has been fully¹⁸ established in its last stages, the acts of the individual of a civil nature will be void, because the party had no consenting mind. Vide Contracts; Wills; 2 Phillim. R. 449. Having no legal will or intention, he cannot of course commit a crime. Vide Insanity; Mania.

DEMESNE¹⁹, Eng. law. The name given to that portion of the Iands of a manor²⁰ which the lord retained in his own hands for the use of himself and family. These lands were called terra dominicales or demesne lands, because they were occupied by the lord, or dominus manerii, and his servants, &c. 2 Bl. Com. 90. Vide Ancient Demesne; Demesne as of fee; and Soil assault demesne.

DEMESNE AS OF FEE. A man is said to be seised in his demesne as of fee of a corporeal²¹ inheritance, because he has a property dominicum or demesne in the thing itself. 2 Bl. Com. 106. But when he has no dominion²² in the thing itself, as in the case of an incorporeal²³ hereditament, he is said to be seised as of fee, and not in his demesne as of fee. Liit. s. 10; 17 S. & R. 196; Jones on Land Titles, i66.

2. Formerly²⁴ it was the practice in an action on the case, e. g. for a nuisance to real estate, to aver²⁵ in the declaration the seisin of the plaintiff in demesne as of fee; and this is still necessary, in order to estop the record with the land; so that it may run with or attend the title. Arch. Civ. Pl. 104; Co. Ent. 9, pl. 8 Lill. Ent. 62; 1 Saund. Rep. 346; Willes, Rep. 508. But such an action may be maintained on the possession as well as on the seisin, although the effect of the record in this case upon the title would not be the same. Steph. on Pl. 322 Arch. Dig. 104; 1 Lutw. 12; 2 Mod. 71; 4 T. R. 718; 2 Saund. 1 Arch. Dig. 105; Cro. Car. 500. 575

DEMIDIETAS. This word is used in ancient records for a moiety²⁶, or one half. DEMIES. In some universities and colleges this term is synonymous with scholars. Boyle on Charities, 129.