EPILEPSY, med. jur. A discase of the brain, which occurs in paroxysms, with uncertain intervals² between them.

2. These paroxysms are characterized by the loss of sensation, and convulsive motions of the muscles. When long continued and violent, this disease is very apt to end in dementia. (q. v.) It gradually destroys the memory, and impairs³ the intellect, and is one of the causes of an unsound mind. 8 Ves. 87. Vide Dig. 50, 16, 123; Id. 21, 1, 4, 5.

EPISCOPACY, eccl. law. A form of government by diocesan bishops⁵; the office or condition of a bishop⁴.

EPISTLES, civil law. The name given to a species of rescript. Epistles were the answers given by the prince, when magistrates⁶ submitted to him a question of law. Vicle Rescripts.

EQUALITY. Possessing the same rights, and being liable to the same duties. See 1 Toull. No. l70, 193, Int.

2. Persons are all equal before the law, whatever adventitious⁷ advantages some may possess over others. All persons are protected by the law, and obedience⁸ to it is required from all.

3. Judges in court, while exercising their functions, are all upon an equality, it being a rule that inter¹ pares non est potestas; a judge cannot, therefore, punish another judge of the same court for using any expression in court, although the words used might have been a contempt in any other person. Bac. Ab., Of the court of sessions, of justices of the peace.

4. In contracts the law presumes the parties act upon a perfect equality; when, therefore, one party uses any fraud or deceit to destroy this equality, the party grieved may avoid the contract. In case of a grant to two or more persons jointly⁹, without designating what each takes, they are presumed to take in equal proportion. 4 Day, 395.

5. It is a maxim¹⁰, that when the equity¹¹ of the parties is equal, the law must prevail. 3 Call, R. 259. And that, as between different creditors¹², equality is equity. 4 Bouv. Inst. n. 3725; 1 Page, R. 181. See Kames on Eq. 75. Vide Deceit; Fraud.

EQUINOX. The name given to two periods of the year when the days and nights are equal; that is, when the space of time between the rising and setting of the sun is one half of a natural day. Dig. 43, 13, 1, 8. Vide Day.

EQUITABLE¹³. That which is in conformity¹⁴ to the natural law. Wolff, Inst. §83.

EQUITABLE ESTATE. An equitable estate is a right or interest in land, which, not having the properties of a legal estate, but being merely a right of which courts of equity will take notice, requires the aid of such court to make it available.

2. These estates consist of uses, trusts, and powers. See 2 Bouv. Inst. n. 1884. Vide Cestui que trust; Cestui que use.

EQUITABLE MORTGAGE, Eng. law. The deposit of title-deeds, by the owner of an estate, with a person from whom he has borrowed money, with an accompanying agreement to execute a regular mortgage, or by the mere¹⁵ deposit, without even any verbal agreement respecting a regular security. 2 Pow. on Mort. 49 to 61; 1 Mad. Ch. Pr. 537; 4 Madd. R. 249; 1 Bro. C. C. 269; 12 Ves. 197; 3 Younge & J. 150; 1 Rus. R. 141.

2. In Pennsylvania, there is no such thing as an equitable mortgage. 3 P. S. R; 233; 3 Penna. R. 239; 17 S. & R. 70; 1 Penna. R. 447.