HOMICIDE. 
ten baths, or seventy-five gallons and five 
pints, as a measure for things liquid; and 
thirty-two pecks and one pint, as a mea- 
sure for things dry. The homer was most 
commonly a measure for things dry, and the 
greatest that was used among the Jews: it 
contained, according to the Rabbins, ten 
ephaps, or thirty fata orseahs. Corns is the 
most usual term in the historical writers, 
and homer, omer, or cliomer, among the 
prophets. 
HOMICIDE, in law, is the killing of a 
man by a man. Of this there are several 
species, as homicide by self-defence, homi- 
cide by misadventure, justifiable homicide, 
manslaughter, chance medley, and murder. 
Homicide by self-defence, se defendendo, or 
in a man’s own defence, is where one has no 
other possible means of preserving his life 
from one who combats with him on a sud- 
den quarrel, and kills the person by whom 
he is reduced to such inevitable necessity. 
And not only he who on an assault retreats 
to a wall, or some such strait, beyoncfwhich 
he can go no farther, before he kills the 
other, is judged by the law to act upon 
unavoidable necessity ; but also he, who 
being assaulted in such a manner, and in 
such a place, that he cannot go back with- 
out manifestly endangering his life, kills the 
other, without retreating at all. And 
though a person who retreats from an as- 
sault to the wall, should give the other 
wounds in his retreat, yet if he give him no 
mortal wound till he get thither, and then 
kill him, he is guilty of homicide se defen- 
dendo only. But if the mortal wound were 
given first, then it is manslaughter. 
Homicide by misadventure, is where a 
man in doing a lawful act, without any in- 
tent of hurt, unfortunately chances to kill 
another ; as where a labourer being at work 
with an hatchet, the head thereof flies off, 
and kills one who stands by. It seems 
clear, that neither homicide by misadven- 
ture, nor homicide se defendendo, are felo- 
nious, because they are not accompanied 
with a felonious intent, which is necessary 
in every felony. 
Homicide, justifiable. To make homi- 
cide justifiable, it must be owing to some 
unavoidable necessity, to which a person 
who kills another must be reduced, without 
any manner of fault in himself. And there 
must be no malice coloured under pretence 
of necessity ; for wherever a person who 
kills another, acts in truth upon malice, and 
takes occasion upon the appearance of ne- 
cessity to execute his own private revenge, 
he is guilty of murder. But if a woman 
kill him who assaulteth to ravish her, it is 
no felony : or if a man come to burn my 
house, and I go out and kill him, it is no 
felony. So, “ if any evil-disposed person, 
shall attempt feloniously to rob or murder 
any person in any dwelling house, or high- 
way, or feloniously attempt to break any 
dwelling-house in the night-time, and shall 
happen to be slain in such felonious at- 
tempt, the slayer shall be discharged, and 
shall forfeit no lands nor goods.” 24 Henry 
VIII. c. 5. Justifiable homicide of a pub- 
lic nature, is such as is occasioned by the 
due execution or advancement of public 
justice, with regard to which it must be ob- 
served, 1. That the judgment, by virtue 
whereof any person is put to death, must be 
given by one who has jurisdiction in the 
cause; for otherwise both judge and officer 
may be guilty of felony. 2. The execution 
must be pursuant to, and warranted by 
the judgment, otherwise it is without autho- 
rity ; and consequently, if a sheriff shall be- 
head a man, when it is no part of the sen- 
tence to cut off the head, he is guilty of fe- 
lony. 
Homicide, manslaughter, against the life 
of another, is either with or without ma- 
lice; that which is without malice is called 
manslaughter, or sometimes chance-medley, 
or chaud-medley, by which is understood 
such killing as happens either on a sudden 
quarrel, or in the commission of an unlawful 
act, without any deliberate intention of 
doing any mischief at all. Hence it follows, 
that there can be no accessaries to this of- 
fence before the fact, because it must be 
done without premeditation ; but there 
may be accessaries after the fact. The 
only difference between murder and man- 
slaughter, is, that murder is upon malice 
aforethought, and manslaughter upon a 
sudden occasion, as if two meet together, 
and striving for the wall, the one kills the 
other, this is manslaughter and felony. And 
if they had, on that sudden occasion, gone 
into the field and fought, and the one had 
killed the other, this had been but man- 
slaughter, and no murder ; because all that 
followed was but a continuance of the first 
sudden occasion, and the blood was never 
cooled till the blow was given. 
Chance, or chaud-medley. Authors of 
the first authority disagree about the appli- 
cation of this word. By some it is applied 
to homicide by misadventure, by others to 
manslaughter. The original meaning of the 
word seems to favour the former opinion, as 
