QUIA, pleadings. Because. This word is considered a term of affirmation. It is sufficiently¹ direct and positive for introducing a material averment. 1 Saund. 117, n. 4; Com. Dig, Pleader, c. 77.

QUIA EMPTORES. A name sometimes given to the English Statute² of Westminster, 3, 13 Edw. I., c. 1, from its initial words. 2 Bl. Com. 91.

QUIA TIMET, remedies. Because he fears. According to Lord Coke, "there be six writs⁴ of law that may be maintained quia timet, before any molestation⁵, distress⁶, or impleading; as. 1. A man may have his writ³ or mesne, before he be distrained. 2. A warrantia chartae, before he be impleaded. 3. A monstra-verunt, before any distress or vexation. 4. An audita querela, before any execution sued. 5. A curia claudenda, before any default of inclosure. 6. A ne injuste vexes⁷, before any distress or molestation. And those are called brevia anticipantia, writs of prevention." Co. Litt. 100 and see 7 Bro. P. C. 12 5.

2. These writs are generally obsolete⁸. In chancery, when it is contemplated⁹ to prevent an expected injury, a bill quia timet (q. v.) is filed. Vide 1 Fonb. 41; 18 Vin Ab. 141; 4 Bouv. Inst. n. 3801, et seq. Bill quia timet.

QUIBBLE. A slight difficulty raised without necessity or propriety¹⁰; a cavil¹¹.

2. No justly eminent¹² member of the bar will resort to a quibble in his argument. It is contrary to his oath, which is to be true to the court as well as to the client; and bad policy because by resorting to it, he will lose his character as a man of probity¹³.

QUICK WITH CHILD, or QUICKENING, med. jurisp. The motion of the foetus, when felt by the mother, is called quickening, and the mother is then said to be quick with child. 1 Beck's Med. Jurisp. 172; 1 Russ. on Cr. 553.

2. This happens at different periods of pregnancy¹⁴ in different women, and in different circumstances, but most usually about the fifteenth or sixteenth week after conception. 3 Camp. Rep. 97.

3. It is at this time that in law, life (q. v.) is said to commence. By statute, a distinction is made between a woman quick with child, and one who, though pregnant, is not so, when she is said to be privement enceinte. (q. v.) 1 Bl. Com. 129.

4. Procuring¹⁵ the abortion¹⁶ (q. v.) of a woman quick with child, is a misdemeanor when a woman is capitally convicted, if she be enceinte, it is said by Lord Hale, 2 P. C. 413, that unless they be quick with child, it is no cause for staying execution, but that if she be enceinte, and quick with child, she may allege¹⁷ that fact in retardationem executionis. The humanity of the law of the present day would scarcely sanction the execution of a woman whose pregnancy was undisputed, although she might not be quick with child; for physiologists¹⁸, perhaps not without reason, think the child is a living being from the moment of conception. 1 Beck, Med. Jur. 291; Guy, Med. Jur. 86, 87.