ECLAMPSIA PARTURIENTIUM, med. jur. The name of a disease accompanied by apoplectic1 convulsions, and which produces aberration2 of mind at childbirth. The word Eclampsia is of Greek origin - Significat splenaorem fulgorem effulgentiam, et emicationem quales ex ocuIis aliquando prodeunt. Metaphorice sumitur de emicatione flammae vitalis in pubertate et aetaeis vigore. Castelli, Lex. Medic.
2. An ordinary person, it is said, would scarcely observe it, and it requires the practised and skilled eye of a physician to discover that the-patient is acting3 in total unconsciousness of the nature and effect of her acts. There can be but little doubt that many of the tragical4 cases of infanticide proceed from this cause. The criminal judge and lawyer cannot inquire with too much care into the symptoms of this disease, in order to discover the guilt5 of the mother, where it exists, and to ascertain6 her innocence7, where it does not. See two well reported cases of this kind in the Boston Medical Journal, vol. 27, No. 10, p. 161.
EDICT. A law ordained8 by the sovereign, by which he forbids or commands something it extends either to the whole country, or only to some particular provinces.
2. Edicts are somewhat similar to public proclamations. Their difference consists in this, that the former have authority and form of law in themselves, whereas the latter are at most, declarations of a law, before enacted9 by congress, or the legislature.
3. Among the Romans this word sometimes signified, a citation10 to appear before a judge. The edict of the emperors, also called constitutiones principum, were new laws which they made of their own motion, either to decide cases which they had foreseen, or to abolish or change some ancient laws. They were different from their rescripts or decrees. These edicts were the sources which contributed to the formation of the Gregorian, Hermogenian, Theodosian, and Justinian Codes. Vide Dig. 1, 4, 1, 1; Inst. 1, 2, 7; Code, 1, 1 Nov. 139.
EDICT PERPETUAL. The title of a compilation11 of all the edicts. This collection was made by Salvius Julianus, a jurist who was, selected by the emperor Adrian for the purpose, and who performed his task with credit to himself.
EDICTS OF JUSTINIAN. These are thirteen constitutions or laws of that prince, found in most editions of the corpus juris civilis, after the Novels. Being confined to matters of police in the provinces of the empire, they are of little use.
EFFECT. The operation of a law, of an agreement, or an act, is called its effect.
2. By the laws of the United States, a patent cannot be granted for an effect only, but it may be for a new mode or application of machinery12 to produce effects. 1 Gallis. 478; see 4 Mason, 1; Pet. C. C. R. 394; 2 N. H. R. 61.
EFFECTS. This word used simpliciter is equivalent to property or, worldly substance, and may carry the whole personal estate, when used in a will. 5 Madd. Ch. Rep. 72; Cowp. 299; 15 Ves. 507; 6 Madd. Ch. R. 119. But when it is preceded and connected with words of a narrower import, and the bequest13 is not residuary, it will be confined to species of property ejusdem generis with those previously14 described. 13 Ves. 39; 15 Ves. 826; Roper on Leg. 210.
EFFIGY15, crim. law. The figure or representation of a person.
2. To make the effigy of a person with an intent to make him the object of ridicule16, is a libel. (q. v.) Hawk17. b. 1, c. 7 3, s. 2 14 East, 227; 2 Chit. Cr. Law, 866.
3. In France an execution by effigy or in effigy is adopted in the case of a criminal who has fled from justice. By the public exposure or exhibition of a picture or representation of him on a scaffold, on which his name and the decree condemning18 him are written, he is deemed to undergo the punishment to which he has been sentenced. Since the adoption19 of the Code Civil, the practice has been to affix20 the names, qualities or addition, and the residence of the condemned21 person, together with an extract from the sentence of condemnation22, to a post set upright in the ground, instead of exhibiting a portrait of him on the scaffold. Repertoire23 de Villargues; Biret, Vo cab.
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