ARTICLES OF THE PEACE, Eng. practice. An instrument which is presented to a court of competent jurisdiction¹, in which the exhibitant shows the grievances² under which be labors⁴, and prays the protection of the court. It is made on oath. See a form in 12 Adol. & Ellis, 599; 40 E. C. L. R. 125, 126; 1 Chit. Pr. 678.

2. The truth of the articles cannot be contradicted, either by affidavit⁵ or otherwise; but the defendant⁶ may either except to their sufficiency, or tender affidavits⁷ in reduction of the amounts of bail⁸. 13 East. 171.

ARTICLES OF WAR. The name commonly given to a code made for the government of the army. The act of April 10, 1806, 2 Story's Laws U. S. 992, contains the rulesand articles by which the armies of the United States shall be governed. The act of April 23, 1800, 1 Story's L. U. S. 761, contains the rules and regulations for the government of the navy of the United States.

ARTICULATE ADJUDICATION. A term used in Scotch⁹, law in cases where there is more than the debt due to the adjudging creditor¹⁰, when it is usual to accumulate each debt by itself, so that any error that may arise in ascertaining¹² one of the debts need not reach to all the rest.

ARTIFICERS. Persons whose employment or business consists chiefly of bodily labor³. Those who are masters of their arts. Cunn. Dict. h. t. Vide drt.

ARTIFICIAL. What is the result of, or relates to, the arts; opposed to natural; thus we say a corporation is an artificial person, in opposition¹³ to a natural person. Artificial accession is the uniting one property to another by art, opposed to a simple natural union. 1 Bouv. Inst. n. 503.

ARTIFICIAL PERSON. In a figurative sense, a body of men or company are sometimes called an artificial person, because the law associates them as one, and gives them various powers possessed¹⁴ by natural persons. Corporations are such artificial persons. 1 Bouv. Inst. n. 177.

AS. A word purely¹⁵ Latin. It has two significations. First, it signifies weight, and in this sense, the Roman as, is the same thing as the Roman pound, which was composed of twelve ounces. It was divided also into many other parts (as may be seen in the law, Servum de hoeredibus, Inst. Lib. xiii. Pandect,) viz. uncia, 1 ounce; sextans, 2 ounces; quodrans, 3 ounces; triens, 4 ounces quincunx, 5 ounces; semis, 6 ounces; septunx, 7 ounces; bes, 8 ounces, dodrans, 9 ounces; dextans, 10 ounces; deunx, 11 ounces.

2. From this primitive¹⁶ and proper sense of the word another was derived¹⁷: that namely of the totality of a thing, Solidum quid. Thus as signified the whole of an inheritance, so that an heir ex asse, was an heir of the whole inheritance. An heir ex triente, ex semisse, ex besse, or ex deunce, was an heir of one-third, one-half, two-thirds, or eleven-twelfths.

ASCENDANTS. Those from whom a person is descended¹⁹, or from whom he derives²⁰ his birth, however remote they may be.

2. Every one has two ascendants at the first degree, his father and mother; four at the second degree, his paternal²¹ grandfather and grandmother, and his maternal²² grandfather and grandmother; eight at the third. Thus in going up we ascend¹⁸ by various lines which fork at every generation. By this progress sixteen ascendants are found at the fourth degree; thirty-two, at the fifth sixty-four, at the sixth; one hundred and twenty-eight at the seventh, and so on; by this progressive increase, a person has at the twenty-fifth generation, thirty-three millions five hundred and fifty-four thousand, four hundred and thirty-two ascendant's. But as many of the ascendants of a person have descended from the same ancestor, the lines which were forked, reunite to the first comnmon ancestor, from whom the other descends²³; and this multiplication²⁴ thus frequently interrupted by the common ancestors, may be reduced to a few persons. Vide Line.

ASCRIPTITIUS, civil law. Among the Romans, ascriptitii were foreigners, who had been naturalized, and who had in general the same rights as natives. Nov. 22, ch. . 17 Code 11, 47.

ASPHYXY, med. jur. A temporary suspension of the motion of the heart and arteries²⁵; swooning, fainting. This term includes persons who have been asphyxiated²⁶ by submersion or drowning; by breathing mephitic gas; by the effect of lightning; by the effect of cold; by heat; by suspension or strangulation. In a legal point of view it is always proper to ascertain¹¹ whether the person who has thus been deprived of his senses is the victim of another, whether the injury has been caused by accident, or whether it is. the act of the sufferer himself.

2. In a medical point of view it is important to ascertain whether the person is merely asphyxiated, or whether he is dead. The following general remarks have been made as to the efforts which ought to be made to restore a person thus situated²⁷,

1st. Persons asphyxiated are frequently in a state of only apparent death.

2d. Real from apparent death, can be distinguished²⁸ only by putrefaction²⁹.

3d. Till putrefaction commences, aid ought to be rendered to persons asphyxiated.

4th. Experience proves that remaining several hours under water does not always produce death.

5th. The red, violet, or black color of the face, the coldness of the body, the stiffness of the limbs, are not always signs of death.

6th. The assistance to persons thus situated, maybe administered by any intelligent person; but to insure success, it must be done without discouragement for several hours together.

7th. All unnecessary persons should be sent away; five or six are in general sufficient.

8th. The place where the operation is performed should not be too warm.

9th. The assistance should be rendered with activity, but without precipitation.