IDENTICALLY, adv. With lamenefs ; in an identi¬ 
cal manner. 
IDEN'TICALNESS,/ Samenefs. 
IDENTITA'TE NOMINIS, Identity of Name, an 
ancient, and now obfolete, writ, that lay for one taken and 
arretted in any perfonal aftion, and committed to prifon, 
for another man of the fame name ; which writ was in 
nature of a committion to enquire, whether he were the 
fame perfon againft whom the aft ion. was brought; and, 
if not, then to difcharge him. Reg. Orig. 194. F. N. B. 267. 
Where one perfon is b)cmiftake arretted for another, the 
perfon fo arretted may maintain an aftion for falfe impri- 
fonment againft the officer to recover damages, though he 
fue this writ for immediate relief from the imprifonment. 
See Arrest. 
IDENTITY, f. [identite , Fr. identitas, fchool Lat.] 
Samenefs ; not diverfity.—Confidering any thing as exift- 
ing at any determined time and place, we compare it 
with felf-exilting at another time, and thereon form the 
idea's of identity and diverfity. 
Identity of Person. Where a perfon, convifted of 
or outlawed for a criminal offence, being alked what he 
hath to allege why execution fliould not be awarded againft 
him, pleads diverfity of perfon, a jury fhall be impan- 
nelied to try this collateral ilfue, viz. the identity of the 
perfon. a . Comm. 396. 
ID'EOT, f. See Idiot. 
IDES, f. [idi , Ital, idus, Lat. fo called of iduo, in the 
old Tufcan language, to divide ; becaufe they divided the 
months, as it were, into two parts,] In the ancient Roman 
calendar, were eight days in each month; the firft of which 
fell on the 15th of March, May, July, and Oftober; and 
on the 13th day of the other months. The ides came be¬ 
tween the kalends and the nones; and were reckoned back¬ 
wards. Thus they called the 14th day of March, .May, 
July, and Oftober, and the, 12th of the other months, the 
pridie idus, or the day before the ides; the next preced¬ 
ing da'y they called the tertia idus-, and fo on, reckoning 
always backwards till they came to the nones. This me¬ 
thod of reckoning time is ftill retained in the chancery of 
Rome, and in the calendar of the breviary. The ides of 
May were confecrated to Mercury; the ides of March 
were ever efteemed unhappy after Cselar’s murder on that 
day; the time after the ides of June was reckoned fortu¬ 
nate for thofe who entered'into matrimony; the ides of 
Auguft were confecrated to Diana, and were oblerved as 
a feaft-day by the Haves. On the ides of September, 
auguries were taken for appointing the magiftrates, wdio 
formerly entered into their offices on the ides of May, af¬ 
terwards on thofe of March. 
I'DEX, a final I river of Italy, now Idice, nearBononia. 
ID'JE, or Sec'ja, a province of Japan. 
IDIOC'RACY, /. [ idiocrafe, Fr. nhoj, and i?, Gr.J 
Peculiarity of conftitution. 
IDIOCRAT'ICAL, ddj. Peculiar in conftitution. 
Ip'IOCY, / [iJWtas, Gr.J Want of underftanding.— 
I ftand not upon their idiocy in thinking that horfes did 
eat their bits. Bacon. 
The law relating to perfons labouring under the infir¬ 
mities of idiocy and lunacy, being in many refpefts the 
fame, and in all fafes depending on fimilar reafoning, is 
here'reduced to one head. 
An Idiot, or natural fool, is one that hath had no un¬ 
ending from his nativity, and therefore is by law pre¬ 
fumed never hkely to attain any. For which reafon the 
cuftody of him and his lands-were formerly vetted in the 
lord of the fee. Fkp. c. u,. 10. And therefore ftill, by fpe- 
<ial cuftom in fome manors, the lord fhall have the order¬ 
ing of idiot and lunatic copyholders. Dy. 302. Hutt. 17. 
27. But, by reafon of< the manifold abufes of this 
power by fnbjefts, it was at laft provided by common ccn- 
fent, that it lhould be given to the king,; as the general 
conferva tor of his people ; in order to present the idiot 
from watting his eftate, and reducing himfelf and his heirs 
to poverty and diftrels.' F. N. B. 232. 
I D 1 
A man is not an idiot if he hath any glimmering of 
reafon, lb that he can tell his parents, his age, or the like 
common matters. F. N. B. 233. But a man who is bom 
deaf, dumb., and blind, is looked upon by the law as in 
the fame ftate with an idiot; he being fuppofed incapable 
of any underftanding, as wanting all thole fenfes which 
fitrnifh the human mind with ideas. Co. Lit. 42. ■ Flcta, 
l. 6. c/40. 
A Lunatic, or non compos mentis , is one wdio hath had 
underftanding, but by difeafe, grief, or other accident, 
hath loft the ufe of his,reafon. A lunatic is, indeed, pro¬ 
perly one that hath lucid intervals, fometimes enjoying 
liis fenfes, and fometimes not; and that frequently de¬ 
pending upon the change of the moon. But under the 
general name of non compos mentis, and which is the molt 
legal term, are comprifed not only lunatics, but perfons 
under phrenzies, or who lole their intellefts by difeafe ; 
thofe that grow deaf, dumb, and blind, not being born Co, 
or fuch in lliort as are judged by the Court of Chancery 
incapable of condufting their affairs. To thefe alfo, as 
well as idiots, the king is guardian, but to a very differ¬ 
ent purpofe. For the law' always imagines that thefe ac¬ 
cidental misfortunes may be removed; and therefore only 
conftitutes the crowm a truftee for the unfortunate per¬ 
rons, to protect their property, and to account to them for 
all profits received if they recover, or after their deceafe 
to their reprefentatives. And therefore it is declared by 
ftat. 17 Edw. II. c. 10, that the king fhall provide for the 
cuftody and fuitentation of lunatics, and preferve their 
lands and the profits of them for their own ufe when they 
come to their right mind : and the king fhall take nothing 
to his own ufe ; and, if the parties 1 die in that ftate, the 
refidue fhall be diftributed for their fouls by the advice of 
the ordinary ; and of courfe, by the iubfequent amend¬ 
ments of the law of adminiltration, lhall now go to their 
executors or adminiftrators. 1 Comm. 304. 
The diftinftion, eftabiiffied by this ftatute, between the 
king’s intereft in the lands of an idiot and thofe of a luna¬ 
tic, is laid down and admitted in all the books which 
fpeak of this matter; and on this foundation it hath been 
refolved, that the king may grant the cuftody of an idiot 
and his lands to a perfon, his heirs and executors, and 
that he had the fame intereft in fuch a one as he had in 
his zodrd by the common law. 
There are, fays Coke, four kinds of men who may be 
faid to be non compos: 1. An idiot who is non compos from 
his nativity. 2. One made fuch by ficknefs. 3. A lunatic,,, 
who is non compos only for the time that he wants under¬ 
ftanding. 4. One that is drunk; which laft is fo far from 
coming within the proteftion of the law, that his drunk- 
ennefs is an aggravation of whatever he does arnifs. Yet 
if a perfon by the unikilfulnefs of his phyiician, or by the 
contrivance of his enemies, eat or drink fuch a thing as 
caufeth phrenzy, this puts him in the fame condition with 
any other phrenzy, and equally excufeth him ; alfo if by 
one or more fuch praftices an habitual or fixed phrenzy 
be caufed, though this madnefs was contrafted by the vice 
and will of the party, yet this habitual and’fixed phrenzy 
thereby caufed puts the man in the lame condition as if 
the fame was contrafted involuntarily at firft. Plowd. 19. a. 
Co. Lit. 247. 1 Hale's Hijl. P.C. 23. 
But, though this fubjeft: of madnefs may be branched 
into feveral kinds and degrees, yet it appears that the 
prevailing diftinftion in law is between idiocy and lunacy 
the firft a fatuity a nativ.itate, vel dementia naturalis ; the 
other accidental or adventitious madnefs, which, whether 
permanent and fixed, or with lucid intervals, goes under 
the general name of lunacy. 
E.very.'perfon of the age of difcretion is in law prefumed 
to be of found mind and memory, unlefs the contrary ap¬ 
pear; and this rule holds as. well in civil as criminal cafes, 
1 Hale's Hifl. P.C. 33. 
By the old common law there is a writ de idiotu inqui- 
rendo, to enquire whether a man be an idiot or not; which 
muft be tried by a jury of twelve men .; and, if they find 
him 
