POINT RESERVED. A point or question of law which the court, not being fully¹ satisfied how to decide, in the hurried trial of a cause, rules in favor of the party offering it, but subject to revision on a motion for a new trial. If, after argument, it be found to have been ruled correctly, the verdict is supported; if otherwise, it is set aside .

POINTS, construction. Marks in writing and in print, to denote the stops that ought to be made in reading, and to point out the sense.

2. Points are not usually put in legislative² acts or in deeds: Eunom. Dial. 2, §33, p. 239; yet, in construing³ them, the courts must read them with such stops as will give effect to the whole. 4 T. R. 65.

3. The points are the comma, the semi-colon⁴, the colon, the full point, the point of interrogation and exclamation⁵. Barr. on the Stat. 294, note; vide Punctuation⁶.

POISON, crim. law. Those substances which, when applied⁷ to the organs of the body, are capable of altering or destroying, in a majority of cases, some or all of the functions necessary to life, are called poisons. 3 Fodere, Traite de Med. Leg. 449; Guy, Med. Jur. 520.

2. When administered with a felonious intent of committing , murder, if. death ensues, it is murder the most detestable, because it can of all others, be least prevented by manhood or forethought. It is a deliberate act necessarily implying malice⁸. 1 Russ. Cr. 429. For the signs which indicate poisoning, vide 2 Beck's Med. Jurisp. ch. 16, p. 236, et seq.; Cooper's Med. Jurisp. 47; Ryan's Med. Jurisp. ch. 15, p. 202, et seq.; Traill, Med. Jur. 109.

POLE. A measure of length, equal to five yards and a half. Vide Measure.

POLICE. That species of superintendence by magistrates⁹ which has principally for its object the maintenance of public tranquillity¹⁰ among the citizens. The officers who are appointed for this purpose are also called the police.

2. The word police has three significations, namely; 1. The first relates to the measures which are adopted to keep order, the, laws and ordinances¹¹ on cleanliness, health, the markets, &c. 2. The second has for its object to procure¹² to the authorities the means of detecting even the smallest attempts to commit crime, in order that the guilty may be arrested before their plans are carried into execution, and delivered over to the justice of the country. 3. The third comprehends the laws, ordinances and other measures which require the citizens to exercise their rights in a particular form.

3. Police has also been divided into administrative¹³ police, which has for its object to maintain constantly public order in every part of the general administration; and into judiciary police, which is intended principally to prevent crimes by punishing the criminals. Its object is to punish crimes which the administrative police has not been able to prevent.