Between the age of thirteen and eighteen not more than twelve hours' CHAP. XII. work per day are allowed.(x) OF THE 25. Under the age of fourteen both sexes are presumed not to have been DIFFERENT guilty of any crime, but proof of sufficient knowledge between good and AGES, &c. evil makes them liable for offences; so that, unless great weakness of intellect appear, they are liable to criminal punishment for crimes of commission after the age of seven, but in no case for a rape or sexual crime under fourteen.(y) 26. Female puberty is menstruation and when the breasts become more fully developed, and though in law supposed to occur at the age of twelve, and which is sometimes the case, (ut supra,) it most usually is not, in fact, till about or after fourteen.(z) 27. Adolescence, or puberty, is in law supposed to exist at the age of twelve in females, and at fourteen in males, and at this time the teeth of second dentition are supposed to be complete.(a) 28. Males after fourteen are competent to marry with consent, or by banns not prohibited;() but before the age of twenty-one consent of parents is essential, or is implied to have been given by publication of banns not prohibited. A marriage by license cannot be obtained without affidavit of the full age of twenty-one having been attained by both the parties;(c) but if the affidavit be false in that respect, the marriage will nevertheless be valid.(d) 29. A male or female, after attaining the age of fourteen, may appoint his or her own guardian; and may make a will of personalty, although not of realty until the age of twenty-one has been attained. (e) 30. Both sexes, between the ages of fourteen and twenty-one, are liable to be punished for crimes and offences of commission, but not for crimes or offences of omission, excepting indictments for not repairing a highway or bridge where the liability was ratione tenuræ.(f) They are not liable to be sued on contracts, excepting for necessaries. But an apprentice is compellable to serve until twenty-one. Between the age of fourteen and twenty-one is considered the most important time for parents and preceptors to observe the moral, religious, and intellectual attainments of youth. (g) 31. The abduction of a female, under the age of sixteen, without the consent of parents, is a misdemeanor, punishable with imprisonment.(h) 32. After the age of seventeen, a male or female might formerly have acted as executor, though not as administrator; but now he cannot act as executor before he has attained twenty-one,(i) though if an infant even under seventeen be named executor jointly with an adult, he must in an action be joined as a co-plaintiff. (k) 33. Under the age of eighteen, no person is to work at night, nor more than twelve hours a-day;() and it should seem that as the full strength, health and constitution, are not settled till about the age of twenty-three, even so many hours' labour should not be allowed until after that age.(m) Eighteen is the earliest age for service in the army; and it has been OF THE CHAP. XII. clearly shown that that age is too early by five years, and productive of many deaths, and always injurious to the individuals and occasioning useDIFFERENT less loss and expense to the state.(1) Until the age of twenty-three, growth AGES, &c. continues, and strength is not completely established. The same principle should be applied to marriage and to all laborious employments.() 34. Males and females, alter attaining the age of twenty-one, are sui juris, and may perform every act,(m) unless where property has been expressly given, not to be enjoyed until a subsequent age. They may marry without consent of parents, by license on affidavit of both the parties being of age.(n) If apprenticed when under twenty-one, he may, in general, avoid the same on attaining that age after a reasonable notice;(0) and under a Marine Mutiny Act. 4 Wm. 4, c. 4, s. 40, &c. an apprentice cannot be claimed by the master after that age. After the age of twenty-one, and until that of sixty, males are liable to serve as jurors.(p) After the age of twenty-one, no one can be deemed a poor child within meaning of stat. 56 Geo. 3, c. 139.(q) 35. A person is completely of age after the first instant of the day before the twenty-first anniversary of birth day, though forty-seven hours and fifty-nine minutes short of the complete number of days, counting by hours;(r) and this mode of calculating age and time is applicable to all the other ages before or after twenty-one. 36. Forcible abduction of any woman, possessed of certain property, with intent to defile, marry, &c., is a misdemeanor, and transportation for at least seven years, or imprisonment for four years.(s) 37. Twenty-three years is the earliest age when men should serve in the army, or be employed in any very laborious occupation, because until that time growth and advancement in strength of body are in progress, and not fully established. (t) 38. No person is to be admitted a Deacon before he shall have attained the age of twenty-three years complete; and no person shall be admitted a Priest before he has attained twenty-four complete.(u) But the power of granting a faculty or dispensation, as regards deacons of earlier age, is saved by the statute.(x) 39. Thirty-five was considered by the Romans, Athenians, &c., as the best age for men to marry.(y) 40. About the age of forty-five sexual desires are supposed to have become more capable of control, and, therefore, if a man, having attained near that age, marry a woman of fifty, he cannot, perhaps, complain of her impotency.(z) 41. After forty-five, or at all events after fifty, usually women cease to menstruate or bear children; but in England may afterwards legally marry, upon full disclosure of age, though marriage might perhaps be void, if she were incompetent.(a) 42. After the age of sixty, men are not bound to serve on juries, &c.(b) (1) Dr. Combe's Physiology, Health, 315 to 317. (m) 1 Bla. Com. 463. (n) 4 Geo. 4, c. 76, s. 10. (0) See cases, Burn, J. tit. Apprentice, VIII. (2;) when not, id. ibid.; and Rex v. Bedwardine, 5 B. & Adol. 175. (p) 6 Geo. 4, c. 50, s. 1. (q) Rex v. Bedwardine, 5 B. & Adol. (r) 1 Bla. Com. 463; Herbert v. Torball, (t) Dr. Combe's Principles of Physiology, Health, 315 to 317; ante, 441. (u) 44 Geo. 3, c. 43; Roberts v. Pain, 3 Mod. 67. (x) See Burn's Ec. L. tit. Ordination. (y) Ante, 424; 1 Paris & Fonb. 172, note (c.) (z) Per Sir Wm. Scott, in Briggs v. Morgan, 3 Phil. Ec. Rep. 231, 232, quære, ante, 378. (a) Brown and Brown, 1 Hagg. Rep.; but see Briggs v. Morgan, 3 Phil. Ec. R. 331, 332. (b) 6 Geo. 4, c. 50, s. 1. CHAP. XII. 43. The age of sixty-three is the first grand climacteric, and is supposed to be a critical age, and has been ably described by Sir Henry OF THE Halford, with its incident climacteric diseases, which occurs between the DIFFERENT AGES, &C. ages of fifty and seventy-five, but more frequently about sixty-three.(c) At this age sometimes, as in Westminster, men are expressly exempted from serving as constables. (d) 44. After sixty-five men usually cease to procreate, but there are some exceptions.(e) 45. Seventy years are the scriptural limit of life, though there are, especially of late, many exceptions, and it is supposed that the average of old age has of late increased, though on an average only one in 15,000 reaches 100 years; nor is the age of eighty-one (the second grand climacteric) often attained. (ƒ) 46. The survivorship of two or more is to be proved by facts, and not by any settled legal rule of law or prescribed presumption.(g) 47. In case of the death of an ancestor, who was tenant in fee, before midnight of the day when rent becomes due, the heir and not the executor is entitled to the rent.(h) But if a tenant for life die on the rent day, his executor is entitled to the whole rent, as well at common law as by the express terms of the statute, 11 Geo. 2, c. 17, s. 15. (i) If he die before the rent day, then by the terms of that act there is to be an appointment of the rent between the executors and the remainder-man, unless there has been a lease pursuant to a leasing power, in which latter case the remainder will be entitled to all the rent growing due. 48. An heir may lay the demise in ejectment on the day of the death of his ancestor.(k) 49. There is a legal presumption of death after a person has not been heard of for seven years;() but the time of the death, when material, must be proved by express evidence, depending upon the particular circumstances of the case.(m) 50. Within fourteen days after death in general, decomposition has so advanced that identity cannot be discovered, excepting by some strongly developed peculiarity;(n) but in a drowned body adipocire is not produced until five or six weeks after the death, a fact exceedingly important to be kept in view in some judicial inquiries relative to the time of death. (0) CHAP. XIII. ANCE OF HEALTH AND HAPPINESS. CHAPTER XIII. OF THE ESSENTIALS FOR THE CONTINUANCE OF HEALTH AND HAPPINESS, First, General Observations. 3. Dress. 4. Proper Diet. 5. Digestion. 6. Education. 7. Labour of Body and Mind. 8. Exercise and Recreation. 9. Rest and Sleep. 10. Healthy Habits. 11. Moral Conduct, Reflection, Quiescence and Pleasure of Mind. THE circumstances essential to the continuance of Health and Happiness are properly subjects of this part of the work relating to the functions of the human frame, whilst in a healthy state, and these have ever received the anxious attention of the common law and legislature. It might naturally be expected that every individual would of his own accord observe the precautions essential to secure the two great desiderata of health and happiness; but experience has established that very many individuals will not, unless compelled, observe these measures, however obviously conducive to their own welfare; and there are many sordid individuals, who, unless prohibited, would sacrifice the lives of thousands in manufactories and mines, by exposing them to injurious atmosphere and excessive labour. Hence we find it continually necessary to introduce new enactments, not merely for securing temperance, but for compelling cleanliness and the prevention of contagious disorders, &c. A concise examination of all matters connected with these important subjects is essential, because it is now well established that "health is more frequently undermined by the gradual operation of constant, though unobserved injurious causes than by any great and marked exposures of an incidental kind," and is more ef fectually to be preserved by a judicious and steady observance of the organic laws in daily life, than by exclusive attention to any particular function, to the neglect of all the rest, and that cæteris paribus, the highest health and greatest vigour will always be on the side of those who make the nearest approach to the fulfilment of such organic laws. (a) Although it was an ancient maxim, “sanis omnia sana," that is, "to the healthy all things are healthy," yet experience has established that, to conduce to the continuance of perfect health and happiness, not only temperance but several other circumstances are essential: as, first, an appropriate atmosphere; secondly, cleanliness in such atmosphere and in residence and person: thirdly, appropriate dress: fourthly, appropriate diet, as well food as drink and regimen respecting the same: fifthly, due digestion: sixthly, due education: seventhly, labour of body and mind: eighthly, exercise of body and mind and recreation: ninthly, due rest and sleep: tenthly, healthy habits: eleventhly, moral conduct, reflection, quiescence and pleasure of mind. It is agreed that all these tend to longevity and calm composure, especially in the eve of life. Volumes have been written on these important subjects,(b) but scarcely regarded until too (a) Dr. Andrew Combes's Principles, &c. 311, 313. (b) See Dr. Johnson on Indigestion; Dr. Combe's Principles of Physiology ap HEALTH AND late, and when by excess or want of care the body and mind have become CHAP. XIII. so enfeebled as to be incapable of medical relief. Man in general seeks CONTINUonly present enjoyment, and cannot relish didactic or moral improvement: he is culpably regardless of his own true interests or even those of his children. In infancy and youth we observe and imitate the habits of others, HAPPINESS. without inquiring whether they be wholesome or injurious, and hence many of the disorders which we experience are attributable, to the want of due care rather than to excess.(c) As regards legislation on these subjects, it has been a general sound maxim not to interfere with individuals in their care of themselves, but merely to guard them against injuries from third persons, and with the latter view, the statutes relative to apprentices and factory children were passed; but it will be found that in many other instances it has been necessary for the legislature to enact laws compulsory on individuals to take care of their own health, lest that of others should be injured, as may be observed in all the modern regulations for the prevention of cholera, (d) and there are many more instances in which it would be better for society if the legislature would still further interfere. It is proposed in the following pages to arrange the physical and legal view of the subjects under the beforementioned heads. heat and air. When examining the principal functions of life, namely, respiration First, Atand its organs, especially the lungs, we necessarily took a concise view mosphere of the temperature of man, (f) and the nature and composition of atmo- and air, spheric air, and how powerfully it influences as well in renovating the cold, dry blood passing through the lungs, (g) and thence into the brain and through- and damp out the body, as in maintaining the temperature of the blood of man al- air, (e) and most uniformly at 96 to 98°, according to Fahrenheit's thermometer, al- of nuisanthough the medium temperature of the atmosphere may be only about ces to the 50°, or in England 52°, or may be much higher or much lower in other countries and on hills or in valleys. The influence of atmosphere upon health is regarded by physicians as of primary importance. It explains, among many other facts, the connexion of temperature with the rise of fevers and other pestilence, the powerful remedial efficacy of hot and cold bathing, changes of climate, and still more of regulating the temperature of air breathed by invalids, the protection by clothing and the ventilation of houses, &c.(h) Perhaps the most striking instance of the extraordinary consequences of atmosphere or climate is that of Cretinism, where merely as a consequence of dwelling during infancy and childhood in deep, narrow, moist, and malarious valleys of the lower Alps, and in Switzerland and of the Pyrennees, where the air is stagnant and the solar beams are intercepted by the mountains, the whole frame is stunted, deformed, and degenerated,(i) whilst the same race of men, inhabiting the adjacent mountains, are perfect and healthy. But besides this more striking consequence, there are even others more extensive, though more gradual consequences of bad air in numerous districts of plied to Health and Education, &c.; Sir Amer. Cyclop. Prac. Med. tit. AcclimateJohn Sinclair, &c. (c) See Dr. Combe's Principles of Physiology, 311, 312, which with Dr. Johnson on Digestion, and Cyclop. Prac. Med. tit. Dietetics, and tit. Education, Physical, should be read by all heads of families. (d) See 2 Wm. 4, c. 10, 11, 27. (e) See, in general, Dr. Johnson on Indigestion; Dr. Combe's Principles, &c.; Copl. Dict. Prac. Med. tit. Climate, tit. Diseases, tit. Arts and Employments; Cyclop. Prac. Med. tit. Air, tit. Artisans; ment. (ƒ) Ante, 113. (g) Ante. 109; G. Smith, 33, 34. (h) 2 Arnott's El. Ph. 93; Dr. Johnson those residing in a pure country air and (i) See Copl. Dict. Prac. Med. tit. |