BALK, 



SALICOlt. 



248 



ID failure of cithrr of thM particular* the sale cannot be 

 1 The right to rewire a good title U one which is conferred 

 upon the buyer by the law, independently of any agreement between 

 parttsj 



By UM <Utute 29 Charlea II., o. 3, a. 4, certain forms were required 

 in order to ghre effect to a sale of " UndH, tenement*, or hereditament), 

 <c any interest in or concerning them." Such forms are no port of the 

 mk>, which consists in the oonaent of parties who are competent to 

 cannot, but the statute merely declares that such consent shall, in 

 oartain cases, hare no legal eflect, unless the prescribed forms are 

 observed. If an agreement for sale has been made without the 

 requisite formalities, and has been carried into effect in some material 

 part, a court of equity will enforce the performance of the whole 

 contract, on the ground that the informal contract, having been partly 

 rrenplntod. is not a case within the statute. In all other cases of con- 

 tract* as to interests in land, " the agreement, or some memorandum 

 or note thereof, shall be in writing, and signed by the party to be 

 charged therewith, or by some other person thereunto by him lawfully 

 authorised." The agreement binds the party who signs it, although it 

 is not signed by the other party. No established form is requisite, 

 and it is not necessary that the agreement should be contained in one 

 instrument : it may be collected from a series of letters, or a written 

 offer followed by a written acceptance, or from documents referred to 

 by a letter. The signature may be attached to any part of it. An 

 agent may be appointed verbally, and the same person may act as agent 

 for both parties to the sale. An auctioneer is such agent, and his 

 writing down the name of the highest bidder in his book is a sufficient 

 signature. 



The law which relates to the construction of agreements for sale 

 talk under the ordinary rules as to the construction of agreements 

 generally. The same observation applies as to the remedies which 

 parties possess for the enforcement of them. When the contract for 

 the sale of an estate is completed, the estate is, in equity, considered 

 to be sold, and the buyer is viewed as the owner of the estate, and the 

 seller as only a trustee for the buyer, while the buyer is considered as 

 a trustee of the purchase-money for the seller. If, therefore, a party 

 has contracted for the sale of an estate of inheritance, and die before 

 payment of the purchase-money, the money will be considered as part 

 of his personal estate, and his executors will be entitled to it. On the 

 other hand, if the party who has contracted to buy the estate die 

 before it is conveyed to him, his heir or devisee will be entitled to the 

 estate, and the executors must pay the purchase-money out of the 

 personal estate of the buyer, if they have sufficient assets. It is a con- 

 sequence of this equitable doctrine, that the buyer must, as a general 

 rule, bear any loss which happens to the estate after the completion of 

 the contract of sale. A person who has obtained such an equitable 

 ownership may deal with the property in all respects as if it were his 

 own ; and such dealings, though not valid at law, are viewed as valid 

 transactions in a court of equity. 



With respect to sales of personal property, the common law required 

 no formalities. The terms of sale might be agreed on either verbally or 

 in writing ; and they might be proved by any evidence legally appli- 

 cable to the proof of other matters. Sales of goods mode at one time, 

 and not together exceeding in price 101., still remain on this footing. 

 By the same statute ('-"' Chas. II., c. 3) which prescribed certain 

 formalities in sales of land, it was enacted (s. 17) that " no contract for 

 the sale of any goods, wares, and merchandise for the price of 101. 

 sterling and upwards shall be allowed to be good except the buyer shall 

 accept part of the goods so sold and actually receive the same or give 

 something in earnest to bind the bargain, or in part payment, or that 

 some note or memorandum in writing of the said bargain be made 

 and signed by the parties to be charged by such contract or their 

 cent* thereunto lawfully authorised." By the 9 Geo. IV., c. 14, s. 7, 

 toe enactments of this act are extended to all contracts for the sale of 

 goods of the value of 10'. sterling and upwards, notwithstanding the 

 goods may be intended to be delivered at some future time, or may 

 not at the time of the contract be actually made or fit for delivery. 

 The statutory requisites are thus four in number : 



1. Delivery and receipt of part of the goods. 



2. Payment of earnest. 



3. Payment of part of the price. 



4. A signature of a memorandum of the bargain by the party or his 

 agent. By the performance of any one of these requisites the parties 

 to the sale are bound. 



If the goods themselves are delivered to the buyer himself and 

 accepted by him, of course no question can arise as to the completion 

 of the bargain. Where, however, the delivery is not to him personally, 

 many cases of nicety occur as to whether or not a delivery has taken 

 place, so as absolutely to vest the property of the goods in the buyer. 

 A delivery which would be sufficient, if not afterwards interfered with 

 by the seller, to accomplish the requisite of the statute, is complete as 

 soon as the goods have been delivered to a carrier for the purpose of 

 being conveyed to the buyer, even although the carrier has not been 

 selected by the buyer. But during the course of actual transit to the 

 place indicated by the buyer to the seller as the place of destination, 

 the goods are subject under certain circumstances to a right of the 

 Mller to detain them. This is called the right of stoppage in transitu, and 

 the time and place when it ce- -.Mare often a question of great nicety. 



[STOPPAGE IN TRANSIT!'.] Where no delivery of part of the goods 

 themselves has been made by actual removal, a constructive delivery 

 may effect the same purpose : a delivery of the key of the warehouse 

 where the goods lie; the receipt of rent for their warehouse-room liy 

 the seller ; the endorsement and delivery of a bill of lading or a dock 

 warrant; an order to a wharfinger to deliver, &c., amount to a 

 delivery. In all such cases, however, it must be understood that the 

 delivery is not complete if anything yet remains to be done to the goods 

 on the part of the seller, such as their separation by weighing or 

 measurement from a larger bulk. Again, the exercise of ownership 

 over the goods by the buyer, with permission of the seller, is an act 

 legally equivalent to delivery : such as marking the goods, tasting 

 wine, and cutting off the pegs from the cask, ic. But in these cases it 

 must distinctly appear that the act which is done is an act of ownership ; 

 if done with any other view, as for the purpose merely of identifying 

 the property, it will of course afford no ground from which a delivery 

 may be inferred. Where a sample is taken out of the whole bulk sold, 

 a delivery of the sample operates as a part delivery. 



2. The earnest-money paid must be retained. In a case where a 

 shilling had been paid to bind a bargain, and was returned, it 

 was held that this was not a compliance with the requisite of the 

 statute. 



3. The part payment need not necessarily bo made in cash ; a pay- 

 ment by acceptance of a bill, or by a promissory note, will, while the 

 instruments remain undishonoured, have the same efiect as by actual 

 money. 



4. The general observations which have been made as to a note or 

 memorandum in writing relative to sales of land, will apply equally to 

 one relative to sales of goods. 



(Sugden, ' On tht Law of Vendors and Purchaseri ;' Ross's ' Treatise, 

 on the Laic of Vendors and Purchatert of Pa-tonal Property.') 



SALEP, Salap, or Saloop, a nutritious article of diet, much valued 

 in the East for its supposed general stimulant properties, but which is 

 justly esteemed as bland and nutritious, and well suited to children 

 and convalescents. Solep consists of the tubers of different species of 

 Urchidea, which have been known in medicine from very early times 

 by the name Orckit. All the European saleps are far inferior to and 

 considered only as indifferent substitutes for that brought by commerce 

 from Africa. Salep is highly valued in India, and forms an article of 

 commerce from Cabul and Cashmere to the north-western provinces 

 of India, where it is sold, at the Hurdwar fair held in April, at.a high 

 price. This is very similar in form and appearance to Turkey salep, 

 though the tubers am twice as large as the best procurable in London. 



All the plants that yield salep have two tubers, charged with nutri- 

 tious matter ; while one is nourishing the flower-stem and seeds of the 

 current year, by which it is robbed of its store, the other serves as a 

 reservoir for the flower-stem of the succeeding year. This last alone is 

 fit for use. Both are dug up together, but the solid one only is 

 retained. It is dipped in warm water, after which the fine brown skin 

 is easily removed by means of a coarse cloth or brush. The tubers, 

 being thus peeled, are arranged on a tin plate, and placed within an 

 oven heated aa for baking bread ; here they remain for seven or ten 

 minutes, in which time they exchange their opaque and milky whiteness 

 for a semi-transparent horn-like appearance and a yellowish colour, 

 retaining their original bulk. Being then withdrawn from the oven, 

 they are exposed during some days to dry and harden in the air ; or, 

 by the employment of a very gentle heat, they may be brought to the 

 same state in the course of a few hours. All that is then required to 

 adapt the salep for food is to boil it in water (or milk) to the required 

 consistency. In Armenia, the tubers, while yet soft, are strung 

 together on threads, and suspended in the sun to dry without artificial 

 heat. The chemical composition of salep varies according to the period 

 of growth when the tubers are taken up. Though salep is regarded as 

 a variety of starch, there is very little pure starch present, the chief 

 constituent being that form of gum termed baxsorinc. With cold 

 water salep very slowly swells and forms a mucilage ; but one part of 

 salep-powder with forty-eight parts of water boiled or heated forms a 

 thick mucilage, which has very peculiar qualities, inasmuch as with 

 either calcined magnesia, bisulphate of qumnia, or biborate of soda, it 

 thickens into a solid glue-like substance. The chief use of salep is as a 

 mild and digestible article of food ; and as the orchis abounds in our 

 meadows, a large supply of nourishment might be obtained by digging 

 up the tubers and drying them, as above stated, and as was recom- 

 mended in the last century by Dr. Percival ('On the Preparation 

 Culture, and Use of the Orchis-root,' 1773). 



Salep is composed chiefly of bassorine, some soluble gum, and a little 

 starch ; by some it is considered as containing the largest portion of 

 nutritious matter in the smallest space. Its presence in small quan- 

 tity in milk retards the tendency of that fluid to; become sour. It is 

 a harmless and useful ingredient in the preparation of bread, and is 

 free from the objections to potato-starch, which is too often used by 

 bakers in the place of wheaten flour. 



SALERNITANA SCHOLA, will be found under this head in the 

 Bioo. Div. 



SALHYDRAMIDE. [SALICYLIC GROUP.] 



SALICIN. [SALICYLIC GROUP.] 



SALICOR, the ash of the plant Salicornia annua. It is produced 

 on the French coast of the Mediterranean, and is used in the tnanu- 



