til 



WHITSUNTIDE. 



WIFE; 11 T.S FUND AND WIFE. 



fatal consequences have sometime* been the result. The cornmence- 

 ntent of thin form of whitlow is indicated by a burning, shooting, 

 throbbing pain of the finger, with a varying degree of constitutional 

 disturbance. Sometimes the febrile symptoms are very violent ; and 

 when the arm is involved, delirium and other alarming symptoms come 

 on. At first there is no perceptible change in the part affected : at 

 length, however, slight swelling comes on, which may extend up tin- 

 arm, even to the axilla. In these cases a small quantity of matter in 

 collected under the flexor tendon of the finger, or under the periosteum, 

 in which latter case the bone is mostly affected with carii 



Whitlows may be caused by some external injury, such OB n pi i. I. 

 from a needle, pin, thorn, or other pointed object, or they inay arise 

 spontaneously. The latter not unfrequently occurs in young persons 

 who are apparently in a good state of health. 



In tin- treatment of whitlow the inflammation can rarely be subdued 

 before it proceeds to suppuration. It may however be tried, and cold 

 lotions and local bleeding, with general antiphlogistic treatment, will 

 sometimes subdue the inflammation. When matter is formed, the 

 best thing that can be done is to get rid of it as soon as possible, and 

 this must be done by cutting down quite upon the seat of inflammation 

 and pain. When matter is formed, ease is immediately given by its 

 being discharged ; and even should an incision be made before suppura- 

 tion has token place, jt will alleviate the symptoms. Where matter in 

 formed extensively under the tendons, free incisions should be made 

 wherever it is collected. Where caries of the bone exists in whitlows, 

 it my be sometimes a question as to whether amputation is not the 

 most effectual treatment. Where whitlow occurs under the nail, 

 the matter may be discharged either by an incision under the nail 

 from the side, or by scraping the nail and making the incision from 

 above. 



WHITSUNTIDE is probably a contracted form of White Sunday 

 tide or time. lu the early ages of Christianity the favourite seasons 

 for administering the rite of baptism were Easter Sunday, the anni- 

 versary of the resurrection of Christ, and Whitsunday, that of the 

 Jewish feast of Pentecost, when the apostles were " baptised with the 

 Holy Ghost and with fire," and they themselves commenced their 

 public ministry by baptising three thousand persons. As emblematic 

 of the spiritual purity which the rite of baptism is supposed to confer, 

 those who received it were clothed in white, and the day is hence con- 

 jectured to have received its name of White Sunday (Dominica alba). 

 Other etymologies more remote and less probable have been given. 

 The rite of baptism was performed in early times on Easter Sunday eve 

 and Whit Sunday eve, that is, on the preceding Saturday evening, when 

 there was a special ceremony of hallowing the font. In a volume of 

 manuscript homilies in the Harleian Library, in the British Museum, 

 No. 2371, it is stated, that " in the begynnyug of holy cbirch, all the 

 children wcren kept to be crystened on thys even, at the font hal- 

 lowyng ; but now, for enchesone that in so long abydy nge they might 

 dye without crystendome, therefore holy chirch ordeyneth to crysten 

 at all times of the yeare ; save, eyght dayes before these evenyns, the 

 chylde shalle abyde till the font hallowing, if it may savely for perrill 

 of death, or ells not." 



Our ancestors seem to hare indulged to excess in the season of 

 Whitsuntide in all kinds of exercises and amusements, for which many 

 of the parishes provided the needful stimulus, and out of which they 

 claimed their due share of profit : for this purpose a house or barn, 

 which was called the church-house, was set apart, and a quantity of 

 ale wan brewed, which was called WhiUun Ale, or Church Ale, and 

 was sold to the parishioners who came there to feast and drink, and 

 gamble, and the profits were applied to the repairs of the church, and 

 sometimes to charitable and other purposes. 



(Brady's Clan* Catendaria ; Strutt's Spark and Patlimes by Hone ; 

 Brand's Popular Antii/uitie*, by Ellis.) 



WII'K; HUSBAND and WIFE. Many of the legal incidents 

 attached to the relation of husband and wife, or, as they are called in 

 our law books, Baron and Pane, have been already noticed under their 

 several heads : the mode of contracting the connection may be found 

 under MARRIAGE, and of dissolving it, under DIVORCE ; the provision 

 for the wife out of her husband's real estates, made by the common 

 law and modified by statutes, is treated of under DOWER ; and the 

 right derived from the same source by the husband to a life interest in 

 his wife's real estate if he survives her and has had a child capable of 

 inheriting, under COURTESY OF ENULAND; the voluntary provision 

 which may be made for the husband, the wife, and the offspring of the 

 marriage, is discussed under SETTLEMENT and JOINTURE ; and the 

 nature of the property which the wife lias, if not independently of her 

 husband, concurrently with him, is described under PAHAI'HKHNAMA 

 and SI.I-AH ATF PROPERTY. The article PARENT AND CHILD shows what 

 little right the law has conceded to the wife with regard to the children 

 of the marriage. It is, therefore, only necessary now to give a 

 general sketch of the subject, so as to bring the separate parts under 

 one view, and to supply such information as may not yet have been 

 given. 



The common law treat* the wife (whom it calls a feme covert, and 

 her condition coverture) as subject to the husband, and gives him 

 leave to exercise over her reasonable restraint, and it lias been said to 

 inflict on her moderate chastisement. The wife may now, however, 

 obtain security that the husband shall keep the peace towards her. It 



looks on the husband and wife in most respects as one person, having 

 only one mind or will, which is exercised by the husband. ! 

 .1 wife cannot sue separately from her husband for injuries done 

 to her or to her property, or be sued alone for debts, unless her 

 husband shall have abjured or been banished the realm ; or Klie has 

 obtained a judicial separation, or protection for her earnings, in '!. 

 sequence of his having deserted her ; or unless where, by |>ai ; 

 customs, she is permitted to trade alone, as in London ; bi 

 here the husband should be joined as defendant by way of conformity, 

 though execution will issue against the wife alone. For injuries to 

 the wife's person or property the remedy is by a joint action, or some- 

 times by the separate action of the husband. Hence again not only 

 can they not in any case, by the common law, contract with or sue 

 one another ; but compacts made between them and all debts con- 

 tracted towards each other whi-n single (unless those made in consi- 

 deration or at least in contemplation of marriage) are made v..i,i 

 common law by their union. This rule does not, however, apply to 

 debts due from the husband to the wife in a representatn 

 as administratrix or executrix, for instance. They cannot make grants 

 one to another to take effect during the joint lives; nor can ti, 

 excepting in the exercise of a pmver, df vise lands to her In 

 any other person ; but the husband may devise to his wife pi 

 to be enjoyed by her after his death. They can give evidence, hoi 

 touching one another, except in criminal cases, or proceedings . 

 out of or relating to adultery. In criminal prosecutions, ho. 

 founded on injuries committed by either party on the person of tlie 

 other, the injured party may (ex I '<: m) be a witness. >." 



can rob the other in the contemplation of law. The propi-i 

 both is, with some modifications, liable to the debts of either, ami with 

 the pei-son of his wife the husband takes the liability to her debts con- 

 tracted before marriage ; but those debts are only recoverable during 

 the wife's life. If she dies before him, he is relieved from that re- 

 sponsibility, whatsoever fortune he may have had with her, exc. 

 that he must apply to the discharge of such debts any assets which arc- 

 received by him as his wife's administrator. As the law considers the 

 wife to be under the perpetual control of her husband, it relic' 

 from responsibility for offences short of murder and high treason 

 mitted at his instigation the evidence of that instigation being his 

 presence during the commission of the offence. For the same reason 

 all deeds executed by her are void; unless in fulfilment of p 

 vested in her or under the guarantee of certain solemnities to 

 her free agency. A disposition by a woman of her property after the 

 commencement of a treaty for marriage, without the privity an 

 currence of her intended husband, is deemed by courts of equity to bo 

 fraudulent, and will be set aside after the marriage as an injury to her 

 husband ; a will made before marriage is also revoked by the sub- 

 sequent marriage of the party making it. [WILL AND TESTAMENT.] 



This legal identity cannot be dissolved, whether in the eyes 

 civil or ecclesiastical courts, by any voluntary act of the parties. Thus 

 no deed of separation, unless it contains an immediate and 

 vision for the wife, and no advertisement or other public notil 

 will relieve a husband from the liability to provide his wife with 

 necessaries fitting to her rank in life (the question of fitness being 

 decided by a jury), or consequently from the duty of paying the debts 

 contracted for such necessaries, if she has been driven from his house 

 by his misconduct. On the other hand, a wife cannot recover at law 

 from her husband from whom she lives apart any allowance which he 

 has contracted with herself to pay her in consideration of the separa- 

 tion, if he desires that their union should be renewed. Nor again is a 

 deed of separation a sufficient answer to a suit promoted by ei-i,. , 

 party for restitution of conjugal rights ; for less is it an answer to tin 

 charge of adultery committed either before or after separation. (Hag- 

 gards ' Consistory Reports,' i. 1 !:!.) 



But this union may be dissolved, when sought for, bond fidr, by 

 either party without collusion with the other, as a remedy for that 

 other's conjugal offences [DIVORCE] ; and the dissolution i.h. 

 husband of his responsibility for his wife's debts contracted aft 

 decree is pronounced, or, in case of his wife's adultery, contracted 

 after the discovery of the adultery and the consequent sepjir.it i. >n : fur 

 if no separation takes place, or if the husband abandons his usual 

 residence to his wife and her paramour, he will be liable to debts con- 

 tracted by her with tradesmen who are ignorant of the facts. So too, 

 by the common law, a husband is not liable for the debts of lii- -,-. >i> 

 contracted after she has quitted his house without sufficient cause, and 

 he has given particular notice to the tradesmen that he will not pay 

 her debts. Still less is he liable for debts contracted while 

 living in open adultery. On the other hand, where the separation or 

 divorce in obtained by the wife on account of the cruelty or adultery 

 of her husband, the court continues on him the duty of maintaining 

 her (if her separate property will not enable her to live according to 

 her rank in life) by requiring him to make her an allowance propor- 

 tionate to his means. [ALIMONY.] The common law recognises this 

 right of the wife in such circumstances to an allowance under the 

 name of her estovers ; and grants her a writ for the recovery of them ; 

 but thin remedy is now never resorted to. 



Such is the general and leading principle of the common law ; but 

 this supposed identity of person, of interest, and of property by no 

 involves equal rights. 



