1 D I 
It is a general rule, that idiots and luna- 
tics,' being by reason of their natural dis- 
abilities incapable of judging between good 
and evil, are punishable by no criminal pro- 
secution whatsoever. And therefore a per- 
son who loses his memory by sickness, in- 
firmity, or accident, and kills himself, is no 
felo de se. And as a person non compos can- 
not be a felo de se by killing himself, so 
neither can he be guilty of homicide in kill- 
ing another, nor of petit treason. If one 
committed for a capital offence become 
non compos before conviction, he shall not 
be arraigned ; and if after conviction, he 
shall not be executed. 
There is a distinction between acts done 
by idiots and lunatics in pais, and in a court 
of record/; that as to those solemnly ac- 
knowledged in a court of record, as fines 
and recoveries, and the uses declared on 
them, they are good, and can neither be 
avoided by themselves, nor their represen- 
tatives, for it is to be presumed, that had 
they been under these disabilities, the 
judges would not have admitted them to 
make those acknowledgements. There- 
fore, if a person non compos acknowledge a 
fine, it shall stand against him and his heirs. 
And to acts done by them in pais, they are 
distinguished into void and voidable, though 
as to themselves they are regularly unavoid- 
able, because no man is allowed to disable 
himself, for the insecurity that may arise in 
contracts from counterfeited madness and 
folly ; besides, if the excuse were real, it 
would be repugnant that the party should 
know or remember what he did ; but their 
heirs and executors may avoid such acts in 
pais, by pleading the disability ; because, if 
they can prove it, it must be presumed real, 
since nobody can be thought to counter- 
feit it, when he can expect no benefit from 
it himself. 
There are frequent instances in .equity, 
where not only idiots and lunatics, who come 
within the protection of the law, but also 
persons of weak understandings have been 
relieved, when they appeared to have been 
imposed upon in their dealings, and un- 
reasonable purchases, and secuiities ob- 
tained from them set aside in their fa- 
vour. Idiots and lunatics, during their 
lunacy are incapable of making any will or 
testament, as are also persons grown child- 
ish by reason of extreme old age. So one 
actually drunk, if he be so drunk as to have 
lost the use of his reason : but though a 
person who wants understanding cannot 
make a will, yet the rule herein is not to be 
JET 
taken from his not being able to measure 
an ell of cloth, tell twenty, or the like, 
but whether he have sense enough to dis- 
pose of his estate with understanding. 
When an idiot sues, or defends, he shall 
not appear by guardian, prochein amy, or 
attorney, but he must be ever in proper 
person : but otherwise of him who becomes 
non compos mentis ; for he shall appear by 
guardian, if within age, or by attorney, if 
of full age. 
JEER, or Jeer-rope, in a ship, is a large 
rope reeved through double or treble 
blocks, lashed at the mast-head, and on the 
yard, in order to hoist or lower the yards. 
Jeers, or being brought to the jeers, in 
the sea-language, signifies a person’s being 
punished at the jeer-capstan, by having his 
arms extended cross-wise, and tied to the 
capstan-bar when thrust through the barrel, 
and standing thus, with a heavy weight 
about his neck. In this posture he is 
obliged to continue, till he is either brought 
to confess some crime of which he is ac- 
cused, or has suffered the punishment which 
the captain has sentenced him to undergo. 
JEHOVAH, one of the Scripture names 
of God, signifying the Being who is self-ex- 
istent, and gives existence to others. See 
the article God. So great a veneration had 
the Jew’s for this name, that they left off 
the custom of pronouncing it, whereby its 
true pronunciation was forgotten. They 
call it tetragrammaton, or the name with 
four letters; and believe, that whoever 
knows the true pronunciation of it cannot 
fail to be heard by God. 
JEJUNUM, in anatomy, the second of 
the small intestines, so called because it is 
usually found empty. See Anatomy. 
JESUITS, in church history, or the so- 
ciety of Jesus, a celebrated religious order 
in the Romish church, founded by Ignatius 
Loyoly, a Spaniard, who in the year 1738, 
assembled ten of his companions, at Rome, 
and proposed to form a new order, when it 
was agreed to add to the three ordinary 
vows of chastity, poverty, and obedience, 
a fourth, which was to go wherever the 
Pope should command, to make converts. 
They were admitted on their own terms ; 
but the order was abolished, on account of 
the enormities committed by them, in 1773. 
JET, a black, inflammable, bituminous 
substance, harder than asphaltum, and sus- 
ceptible of a good polish ; it becomes elec, 
trical by rubbing, attracting light bodies 
like yellow amber ; it resembles cannel- 
coal in some particulars, as in hardness, re- 
