ESCHEAT. 



ESOTERIC. 



958 



solid state to many inflamed parts it speedily checks the morbid 

 action, and is decidedly the best application to chilblains, and in 

 leucorrhcea. The actual cauteranta are used either for their primary 

 action, viz., the immediate destruction of the part, or for their 

 secondary effects. The former object is rarely attempted, except to 

 prevent the absorption of any poisonous or contagious matter, such as 

 the venom of a snake, or bite of a mad dog. The secondary effects 

 are more important, and more varied according to the degree of heat 

 of the substance applied. The first effect is pain more or less severe, 

 a flow of blood towards the part, and more rapid performance of the 

 process of interstitial deposition and absorption, terminating in inflam- 

 mation, extending to a greatetor less depth, according to the intensity 

 of the heat, or form of the body employed. This increased action has 

 often a salutary effect, which is frequently felt through the whole 

 frame. Torpor and paralysis of the nervous system often disappear, 

 and neuralgia both of the neighbouring and even distant parts is 

 removed. Atony and laxity of the muscular system vanish, and 

 every part displays more energy and power. 



The actual cautery may be applied in a variety of ways, viz., hot 

 water, hot vapour, moxa, and heated iron. The first of these is a very 

 ready means of causing vesicafiona in some diseases. In phthisis 

 pulmonalU, or consumption, where pain is often more relieved by 

 vesication than any other means, placing a sponge in a wine-glass, and 

 pouring boiling water on it, then suddenly inverting the glasss over 

 the prt of the chest where the pain is felt, will causa immediate 

 veaication, followed by speedy relief. The vapour of boiling water, as 

 it issues from the spout of a kettle, is also a convenient method of 

 applying heat in inflammations of the joints, as in gout, morbus 

 coxarius, and other deep-seated diseases of the bones. As the red-hot 

 iron is now seldom used, being confined to veterinary medicine, moxa 

 affords the best substitute, and it is very convenient as any degree of 

 intensity or rapidity of action can be given to it [Mox A.] 



The eschar which follows the application of the potential or actual 

 cautery generally separates in a few days. The ulcer is then to be 

 treated with different agents, according as it is wished to heal it or 

 keep it open, as a farther means of counter-irritation. 



ESCHEAT, from the Norman French word tucket or ethtt, chance or 

 accident (a word derived from tteheoir, the old French form of the verb 

 trhvir, " to fall "), u defined by Sir William Blackstone as an obstruc- 

 tion to the course of descent by some unforeseen contingency which 

 consequently determines the tenure. In this case the land results 

 back by a kind of reversion to the original grantor or lord of whom it 

 'ten. 



Escheat take* place when the tenant of lands dies intestate and with- 

 out an heir : in such case the lands, if freehold, escheat to the king, or 

 other lord of the fee ; if copyhold, to the lord of the manor. Lands 

 which have descended to the last tenant from a paternal or maternal 

 ancestor, escheat, if there are no Jietrs on the part of that ancestor 

 from whom the lands descended. Since the 1st day of January, 1834, 

 there can be no escheat on failure of the whole blood, wherever tin-re 

 are persons of the half-blood capable of inheriting, under 3 and 4 Will. 

 IV., c. 106. 



If a bastard dies intestate and without issue, his lands escheat to the 

 lord of whom they are held. 



Escheat also takeo place upon attainder for treason and murder, by 

 means of which the blood i in law considered to be corrupted, and the 

 attainted owner of lands rendered incapable of holding them himself, 

 or transferring them by descent. In consequence of this extinction of 

 heritable blood, the lands of such felons revest in the lord, except in 

 cases of treason, when a superior law intervenes, and they become 

 forfeited to the crown. Previously to the statute (3 & 4 William 

 IV., e. 106) a person could not trace his descent through another 

 person who had been attainted ; but this may now be done, provided 

 that other person shall have died before such descent shall have taken 

 place. [ATTAINDER.] And by the 4 & 5 William IV., c. 23, no 

 property vested in any trustee or mortgagee shall escheat or be forfeited 

 by i >M* m of the attainder or conviction for any offence of such trustee 

 or mortgagee, except so far as such trustee or mortgagee may hare a 

 hsmfliriil interest in such property. 



This doctrine of escheat consequent upon the commission of certain 

 crimes is derived from the feudal law, by which a vassal was only 

 permitted to hold real property upon condition of well demeaning 

 himself. 



The doctrine of escheats, with regard to extinct successions, seems 

 to have been adopted in every civilised country, to avoid the confusion 

 which would otherwise arise from the circumstance of any property 

 becoming common; and the sovereign power, or those who claim 

 Tin4i- it, are consequently the ultimate heirs to every inheritance to 

 which no other title can be found. 



B8CHEATOU, an ancient officer, so called because his office was to 

 a'ter escheats, wardships, and other casualties belonging to the 

 crown. 



There were at first only two escheators throughout England, one on 

 this side and the other beyond the Trent ; but in the reign of King 

 Edward III. there was one appointed for every county, who was to 

 continue in office for one year only. This office has long ceased to 



ROW. 



ESCTJAGE, or SCUTAGE, a pecuniary payment, by way of com- 

 mutation for the kuight-service, whereby the tenant was bound to 

 follow his lord into the wars at his own charge. The term is derived 

 from the Latin scutum, ' a shield.' 



The personal attendance due by kuight-service growing troublesome 

 and inconvenient, the tenants found means of compounding for it, 

 first by sending others in their stead, and in process of time by making 

 a pecuniary satisfaction to the lords iu lieu of it. This ultimately 

 came to be levied by assessments, at so much for every knight's fee ; 

 and therefore this tenure was called scuta'/ium in Latin, or territium 

 truti ; as being a pecuniary substitute for personal service. The first 

 time it appears to have been taken was by Henry II., on his expedition 

 to Toulouse ; but it soon came to be so universal, that personal attend- 

 ance fell into disuse. From this period, when our kings went to war, 

 they levied scutages on their tenants, that is, on all the landholders of 

 the kingdom, to defray their expenses and hire troops ; and these 

 assessments, in the time of Henry II., seem to have been made 

 arbitrarily and at the king's pleasure. This prerogative being greatly 

 abused by his successors, it became matter of national complaint, and 

 King John was obliged to consent, by his Magna Charta (c. 12), that 

 no scutage should be imposed without consent of parliament. This 

 clause was omitted in Henry III.'s charter; where we only find 

 (c. 37), that scutages should be taken as they were used to be taken in 

 the time of Henry II. ; that is, in a reasonable and moderate manner. 

 Afterwards by 25 Edw. I. c. 5 & 6 and many subsequent statutes, it was 

 enacted, that the king should take no aids or tasks but by the common 

 assent of the realm. Heuce it is held that scutage could not be 

 levied but by consent of parliament, such scutages being indeed the 

 groundwork of all succeeding subsidies, and of the land-tax of later 

 times. 



ESCULETIN. [EscuLHf.[ 



ESCULIC ACID. SapoHit Acid, Sapogenin. By adding a little 

 hydrochloric or sulphuric acid to a boiling solution of SAPONIN, a 

 white substance is precipitated, to which M. Fremy gave the name 

 esculic acid, and the formula C^H^O^. According to Bochleder and 

 Schwartz, it is identical with i/iiinnraticucii! (CVH IO O 4 ), whilst M. Bolley 

 terms it, mpogenin, and gives it the formula C,,H 15 10 . 



Esculic acid presents the appearance of white granular tasteless 

 crystals scarcely soluble even in boiling water, insoluble in ether, but 

 easily soluble in alcohol. It forms salts with bases, and is transformed 

 into a yellow resin by nitric acid. 



ESCULIN. Pvlyc/iromt. A neutral crystalline substance found in 

 the bark of the horse-chestnut tree [iEscuLUS, in NAT. HIST. Div.], 

 [PAVIIS]. The aqueous infusion of the bark is treated with excess of 

 acetate of lead, and the filtered liquor, after removing excess of lead by 

 sulphuretted hydrogen, evaporated till of a syrupy consistence ; after 

 a few days the esculin crystallises out, and may be purified by re- 

 crystallisation, first from dilute alcohol (sp. gr. '940), and then from 

 boiling water. 



The formula of esculin, after drying in a water-oven, is C 4 .H, t O M . 

 It crystallises in small colourless needles, without odour, and of a bitter 

 taste. It is very soluble in hot water, less so in alcohol, and but 

 slightly soluble in ether or cold water. It fuses at 320 Fahr., at a 

 higher temperature decomposes, emitting an odour of caramel, and 

 yields a small quantity of a crystalline sublimate (csculi tin}. 



Solutions of esculin are remarkable for their high fluorescent power, 

 appearing of a deep blue colour by reflected light, while by transmitted 

 light they are colourless. This property still obtains in a solution 

 containing only one part of esculin to one and a half million parts of 

 water. 



Esculin is one of the so-called ylucrmdes, that is, by the action of 

 boiling dilute acids, or of the ferment emulsin, it splits up into 

 glucose (grape sugar), and etculctin, according to the following 

 equation : 



C.jH.,0.,. + 6HO = C 1B n a O s + 



Ksculin. 



Esculelin. 



Glucose. 



Eicvlctin is but slightly soluble in water or alcohol, but freely so in 

 either, if boiling. It forms small acicular or micaceous crystals. 

 Solutions of acetate of lead and of esculetiu, yield a lemon-yellow 

 precipitate, in which two of the six equivalents of hydrogen in escu- 

 letin are substituted by two equivalents of lead. 



ESCUTCHEON or ESCOCHEON, the heraldic term for the shielrl, 

 on which, under every variety of shape, arms are emblazoned. The 

 word is derived from the French (cueson, and that from the Latin 

 scutum. The first representation of arms was, no doubt, as an orna- 

 ment to the shield. The shield afterwards became the appropriate and 

 legitimate instrument for displaying them ; hence in sculpture and 

 painting they were never separated ; and when shields ceased to bo 

 employed, their form remained, and still continues to be the field on 

 which coat-armour is invariably depicted. An escutcheon of pretence is 

 the small shield hi the centre of his own, on which a man carries tlie 

 coat of his wife, if she is an heiress and he has issue by her. In this 

 case the surviving issue will bear both coats quarterly. 



ESENBECKINE. An alkaloid of uncertain composition, said to be 

 contained in the bark of the enbtcldn febrifttga, 



ESOTERIC. [ExOTEnic.] 



