867 



INFANT. 



INFANTICIDE. 



868 



" It is perfectly safe and most conducive to the purposes of justice, to 

 trust the jury with a full knowledge of the standing of a witness into 

 whose character an inquiry is made. It will not thence follow that from 

 minor vices they will draw the conclusion in every instance that his 

 oath must be discredited, but only be put on their guard to scrutinise 

 his statements more strictly, while in cases of vile reputation in other 

 respects they would be warranted in disbelieving him, though he had 

 never been called so often to the book as to fix upon him the reputa- 

 tion of a liar when on oath." (Hume . Scott, 3 A. K. Marshall, 

 261.) As to this branch of the English law of evidence, see Taylor on 

 Evidence, vol. ii. 132 1328; and Best on Evidence, 2nd edit., 

 pp. 184187. 



The only satisfactory definition of infamy would be a permanent 

 legal incapacity to which a man is subjected in consequence of a con- 

 viction and judgment for an offence, and which is not removed by 

 suffering the punishment for the offence. By 2 Geo. II. c. 24, 6, 

 persons who are legally convicted of perjury or subornation of perjury, 

 or of taking and asking any bribe, are for ever incapacitated from 

 voting at the election of members of parliament ; and by 17 & 18 Viet. 

 c. 102, s. 6, it is enacted that after a' conviction of any person, if a 

 voter, in a court of law for bribery or undue influence, or after judg- 

 ment in a penal action for bribery, treating, or undue influence, the 

 revising barrister is to expunge the offender's name from the list of 

 voters, to disallow it when sought to be inserted there, and (in either 

 of the last two events) to place it in a list to be entitled ' The List of 

 Persons Disqualified for Bribery, Treating, or Undue Influence.' Such 

 persons are therefore infamous : they labour under infamy, and have 

 lost part of their political rights. 



The Roman term Infamia is the origin of our term infamy. Infamia 

 followed in some cases upon condemnation for certain offences in a 

 judicium publicum ; and in other cases it was a direct consequence 

 of an act, as soon as such act became notorious. Among the cases in 

 which Infamia followed upon condemnation, were, insolvency, when a 

 man's goods were taken possession of by his creditors in legal form 

 and sold ; the actio f urti, and vi bonorum raptorum : actio fiducia;, pro 

 socio, tutelae, &c. In all these cases a judicial sentence, or something 

 analogous to it, was necessary, before infamia could attach to a person. 

 Among the cases in which infamia followed as an immediate con- 

 sequence of acts which were notorious are the following : the case of a 

 woman caught in adultery, of a man being at the same time in the 

 relation of a double marriage, of prostitution in the case of a woman, or 

 of a man or woman gaining a living by aiding in prostitution. 



Savigny, in his review of the different circumstances which led to 

 the penalty of infamy among the Romans, points out two elementary 

 principles common to them all. First, that infamy always attached to the 

 personal act of the individual declared infamous ; secondly, that it -as 

 in consequence of his act and not owing to the nature of the penalty, 

 that the offender was adjudged to be infamous. (D. 3, 2, 22.) 



The consequence of Infamia was incapacity to obtain the honours 

 of the state, and probably the loss of the suffrage also ; and it was 

 perpetual. The infamis was still a citizen (civis), but he had lost his 

 political rights. The infamous man was also under some disabilities 

 as to his so-called private rights. He was limited by the Praetor's 

 edict in his capacity to postulate (that is, take the initial measures 

 for asserting or defending his rights in legal form), to act as the 

 attorney of another in such cases, to be a witness, and to contract 

 marriage. 



The rules of the Roman law as to Infamia are chiefly contained in 

 the ' Digest,' iii. tit. 1 and 2, and Code, ii tit. 12. In addition to these 

 texts contained in the Corpus Juris Civilis, the reader is referred to 

 the old fragmentary Roman law called the ' Tabula Heracliensis,' pub- 

 lished at Rome about the year 709, under the name of the Lex Julia 

 Municipals, which will be found to bear upon the authorities above 

 referred to. 



(See Savigny, Sytem det heut. Rom. Jtechtt,u. 76-83 ; Becker, ,Uand- 

 buch der Rom. Alterthumer, ii. 121 ; Puchta, Institutionem, ii. 441 ; 

 Muhlenbruch, Doctrina, Pandectarum, vol. ii. 189 et eeq.) 



INFANT, a person under the age of twenty-one, whose acts are in 

 many cases either void or voidable. A a general rule, an infant cannot 

 make any binding contract, though to this there are some exceptions : 

 thus an infant may bind himself to pay for his necessary meat, drink, 

 apparel, physic, and such other necessaries, and likewise for his good 

 teaching and instruction. But where an infant is living in his father's 

 home and under his care, he is not liable even for necessaries. 

 Necessaries for an infant's wife are necessaries for him. Infants arc 

 also incapacitated from making a will. 



It should also be observed, that an infant, how young soever he may 

 be, and even a child in the womb, or, as it is technically expressed, en 

 rentre to, mere, may be appointed an executor : but the statute 38 Geo. 

 III., c. 87, disqualifies an infant who is appointed title executor from 

 exercising the office during his minority ; and administration with the 

 will annexed muat be granted to the infant's guardian, or to some other 

 person, until the infant is of full age. 



An infant en ventre sa mere is supposed in law, for most purposes, 

 to be a person in being. Thus he may take an estate, and the taking 

 away of hi* life may amount to homicide. 



INFANT HKIR. [HjUH.l 



INFANT SCHOOLS. [SCHOOL*.] 



INFANT WITNESSES. [AoE.] 



INFANTICIDE. The practice of putting infants to death has 

 existed from the remotest periods on record, though the motives for 

 the act have somewhat varied. In some at least of the states of Greece 

 the destruction of those who were born weak or deformed was either 

 commanded or allowed. In Rome children were exposed or put to 

 death, not only with the view of removing those who might throughout 

 life have remained a burden to their friends and useless to the state, 

 but to prevent the too rapid increase of the population. The propaga- 

 tion of Christianity first checked the practice; and in A.D. 315, 

 Constantine the Great provided for the maintenance of the offspring of 

 those who were themselves destitute. Infanticide prevailed however 

 to a slight extent till the reign of Valentinian, who " included such 

 murders in the letter and spirit of the Cornelian Law." (Gibbon, 

 ' Decline and Fall.') Among the contemporary barbarous nations, the 

 same motive, and the sacrifices required for their deities, induced the 

 same crime. 



In modern times, the practice, though it is not anywhere sanctioned 

 or commanded by law, is yet permitted in many countries. In China 

 a large proportion of the female population are put to death as soon as 

 they are born. Among the Hindus it was practised to a very great 

 extent, till the Marquis of Wellesley, when appointed Governor-General 

 of India, used every possible exertion to put a stop to it. By the 

 perseverance of Major Walker and others his endeavours were suc- 

 cessful, though unhappily for only a short time, for Bishop Heber tells 

 us that " since that time things have gone on very much in the old 

 train, and the answer made by the chiefs to any remonstrances of the 

 British officers is, ' Pay our daughters' marriage portions, and they 

 shall live.'" ('Narrative of a Journey in Upper India,' and ' Hindu 

 Infanticide,' by E. Moor, F.R.S., 1811; including Walker's 'Report.') 

 On the island of Ceylon, Heber also remarks that in 1821 "the number 

 of males exceeded that of females by 20,000 ; in one district there 

 were to every hundred men only fifty-five women, and in those parts 

 where the numbers were equal the population was almost exclusively 

 Mussulman." Here also, as in Hindustan, the difficulty and expense of 

 educating female children, and the small probability of their marrying 

 without some dowry, while a single life is deemed disgraceful, are the 

 motives leading to the perpetration of the crime. Amongst the 

 Mohammedans the practice is not discountenanced, though the 

 necessity for it is greatly lessened by the .habit of producing abortion, 

 which almost universally prevails. In the numerous islands of the 

 Pacific, infanticide is practised to such an extent, that some of them 

 have at times, when pestilence has contributed its influence, been nearly 

 depopulated. When Cook visited Otaheite, he found its population 

 to be upwards of 200,000 ; but in the early part of this century it was 

 reduced to between 5000 and 6000, and this principally from the 

 practice of murdering their offspring. Mr. Ellis (' Polynesian Re- 

 searches ') says that he does " not recollect having met with a female 

 in the island, during the whole period of his residence there, who had 

 been a mother, while idolatry prevailed, who had not imbrued her 

 hands in the blood of her offspring." We have similar accounts from 

 nearly all the northern parts of America, from Hudson's Bay, Labrador, 

 Mexico, &c. ; but it is most gratifying that in all, one of the first and 

 greatest blessings which have followed the introduction of Christianity 

 and civilisation has been the decrease or complete cessation of this 

 abominable custom. 



In more civilised lands, although infanticide is regarded with the 

 deepest abhorrence, and is visited with the extremest severity of the 

 law, the expense and trouble of maintenance, and the fear of shame and 

 loss of reputation, are motives sufficiently powerful for the occasional 

 perpetration of the crime. 



It is one of the most difficult questions of medical jurisprudence to 

 discover and establish the murder of a child lately born. The chief 

 points for decision are, 1st, whether the infant, the subject of inquiry, 

 was born dead or alive ; and 2nd, whether its death was the result of 

 violence or of natural causes. 



To establish the former point it is necessary to prove first that the 

 infant was not bom before the end of the sixth month after con- 

 ception, because before that time a foetus cannot be deemed capable of 

 maintaining an independent existence, or to be what is called viable. 

 This being proved from the size and form of the child, the decision 

 whether it were born alive or not must generally rest on the condition 

 of the lungs and heart, in which certain remarkable chauges are pro- 

 duced as soon as respiration in the air has commenced. In the fcetus 

 in utero and in the still-born child the lungs are of a dark purplish or 

 chocolate colour, nearly like that of the liver ; they are small, and 

 occupy only a small part of the cavity of the chest, in which they lie 

 close against the spine ; they have a firm solid consistence, like liver, 

 and their edges are sharply lobed. In the child which has breathed 

 the lungs are of a florid red or rosy hue ; they nearly fill the chest, and 

 are found on opening it to be almost in contact with its front wall : 

 their substance is soft, spongy, and light they crepitate or crackle 

 when pressed, frothy fluid may be squeezed out from an abundance of 

 minute cellules, and their edges and lobes, instead of being sharp, are 

 smoothly rounded off. If the child has breathed fully for some 

 minutes after birth, these characters will generally be sufficient to 

 decide the point in question, but in more difficult cases the weight of 

 the lungs and their specific gravity require to be examined. At the 



