MORTIER MORVIEDRO. 



69 



formance of the condition, the thing mortgaged shall 

 be absolutely and immediately forfeited to the mortga- 

 gee, without any right on the part of the mortgager 

 to redeem it, or to call upon the mortgagee to sell it 

 and account with him for the proceeds. Thus, in 

 the common form of mortgaging land, it is conveyed 

 to the mortgagee with a provision, that in case he 

 shall pay a certain debt, or do a certain thing within 

 a time specified, the conveyance shall be void. 

 According to the literal construction, therefore, if 

 this condition is not complied with, the thing thence- 

 forth belongs absolutely to the mortgagee. But here 

 the Jaw steps in and controls the agreement, and 

 attempts to prevent it from operating as a penalty 

 or forfeiture, at the same time giving it all its force 

 as a security or guarantee. For this purpose, dif- 

 ferent modes are adopted in different codes of 

 laws, all of which agree in applying the value 

 of the thing mortgaged in satisfaction and discharge 

 of the debt or obligation intended to be secured ; 

 so that by all the codes justice is done, if there 

 is no surplus value. But if there be a surplus value, 

 some of the codes will reach it, and others not, and 

 the same code will reach it in regard to one kind of 

 pledge, mortgage, or hypothecation, and not another. 

 For example, by the English law, if a debtor 

 pledges bills of exchange or any personal property 

 for a debt, to an amount exceeding its value, the 

 creditor must account for the proceeds, and pay over 

 the surplus to his debtor ; but if the debtor mort- 

 gages lands, of which the creditor takes possession 

 for breach of condition, the debtor has three years to 

 redeem it, after which time the land is absolutely 

 gone, though twice the amount of the debt in value. 



MORTIER. See Cap. 



MORTIFICATION, in medicine, is the death of 

 a part of the body while the rest continues alive, 

 and often in a sound state. If the part be a vital 

 organ, as the lungs, its death must necessarily be 

 followed by that of the whole person. Mortification 

 is called gangrene and sphacelus, when occurring in 

 soft or fleshy parts, as in the stomach or the limbs ; and 

 caries when in a bone, as in the spine, in the skull, 

 &c. It is caused by violent inflammation, by exposure 

 to freezing cold, by hospital fevers, by languid, or 

 impeded, or stopped circulation, as in cases of bed- 

 ridden or palsied persons, and by improper food, 

 particularly the spurred or mildewed grain. It may 

 be recognised, when preceded by inflammation, by 

 the following signs : subsidence of pain, heat and 

 redness, and loss of sensibility ; brown lividity, blis- 

 tered skin, with bloody serum in the vesicles, offen- 

 sive odour occurring in the part, and by a small, 

 rapid, intermitting pulse; by shiverings followed 

 with cold sweat, diarrhoea, delirium, hickup, dejec- 

 tion of spirits, and by a wild, cadaverous countenance. 

 When a part having been frozen is suddenly exposed 

 to heat, mortification rapidly ensues ; the part be- 

 comes florid; inflammation is unsuccessfully attempt- 

 ed, and sphacelus is the result. In the above 

 species a distinctly marked line divides the dead and 

 living portions; often a healthy separation ensues. 

 Mortification is common in the fevers, wounds, and 

 injuries of the crowded jails and military hospitals of 

 Europe. This gangrene is considered contagious by 

 some surgeons, the nurses and orderlies suffering 

 from ulcers and sloughs on the hands, when touched 

 with the sponges used in cleansing the sick. The same 

 effect is produced on the sound portions of the skin 

 of the sick. This hospital gangrene is distinguished 

 by its rapid spread to contiguous parts, as from 

 fingers to arms, by the oozing of grumous blood, by 

 horrible fetor, by fatal depression of spirits, and by 

 the sullen despair of patients who, on the day of 

 battle or of amputation, were the bravest of the 



brave. Sometimes the cutting a nail to the quick, 

 or a slight bruise, will induce gangrene in old or 

 debilitated persons. 



Mildew mortification differs from other kinds in 

 appearance and process, beginning with coldness 

 and numbness in fingers or toes, without fever, but 

 with spasms, and hebetude of mind ; it separates 

 arms, legs, or thighs, and nose. It is more often 

 found in the voluptuous rich than in the labouring 

 poor, in huge feeders than in free drinkers. It is 

 thought to be connected with a diseased state of the 

 digestive organs, and great nervous debility. Mr 

 Pott sometimes checked it by opium in a few days, 

 and, after the dropping off of the affected parts, the 

 patients recovered health. There is a dry gangrene 

 to which palsied persons, as well as others, are lia- 

 ble, which slowly destroys the limb, and commonly 

 without inflammation or putrefaction. This is some- 

 times explained by the absence of warmth, and 

 moisture, and air, which are removed by preceding 

 atrophy the colour livid, though sometimes nearly 

 natural. When the bones ot the leg mortify, or 

 become carious, new osseous matter is provided, in 

 sound constitutions. This process, occupying years 

 when left to nature, is much accelerated by the arti- 

 ficial removal of the dead bone. 



MORTMAIN. Lands held by a corporation are 

 said to be held in mortmain (morttta manu, dead 

 hand); the meaning of which is that the estate is a 

 perpetuity, or, in other words, is not alienable. The 

 expression has particular reference to estates held by 

 the religious and eleemosynary corporations in Eng- 

 land, which became objects of jealousy very early, 

 it being apprehended that all the lands of the king- 

 dom might come by conveyances prompted by the 

 piety or superstition of proprietors into the hands of 

 those corporations. Accordingly, conveyances and 

 devises to corporations, civil or ecclesiastical, were 

 forbidden by magna charta, and have been restrained 

 and interdicted by subsequent statutes. In the 

 United States, the amount of real estate that may be 

 held by a corporation is usually limited in its charter, 

 and it is also understood, as the general law, that 

 any corporation can only hold land for the purposes 

 of its incorporation, unless authority is expressly 

 given in its charter. The English statutes of mort- 

 main have been held to be in force in Pennsylvania 

 (3 Binney's Reports. App. 626), but they have not 

 been expressly recognised as being a part of the 

 common law in other states. 



MORVEAU, Louis BERNARD GUYTON DE BARON, 

 a celebrated chemist, born at Dijon, January 4, 1737, 

 distinguished himself, in 1773, by the invention of 

 the method of purifying the atmosphere by means ot 

 chlorine, which is now generally employed with the 

 greatest success. Morveau was previously general- 

 advocate of the parliament at Dijon, an able man of 

 business, eloquent and upright. He founded a school 

 at Dijon for his favourite study chemistry, and, dur 

 ing thirteen years, himself conducted it. In 1801, 

 appeared his Description complete des Precedes de 

 Disinfection. In 1791 he was made member of the 

 national assembly, afterwards of the convention. A t 

 the battle of Fleurus, he ascended in a balloon. In 

 1797, he retired to private life. Subsequently he 

 was chosen a director of the polytechnic school, 

 which he assisted to establish, and a member of the 

 institute. After the restoration he was pensioned. 

 He died January 2, 1816. His wife translated seve- 

 ral chemical works from the English, Swedish, and 

 German ; also Werner's treatise on the exterior 

 characters of fossils (1790). 



MORVEN. SeeFingal. 



MORVIEDRO, or MURV1EDRO ; a town of 

 Spain, in Valencia, thirteen miles north north-east of 



