Vickipedia

AMPUTA’TION (Lat. amputo, I lop or prune) is the cutting off of a part which, by its diseased condition, endangers, or may en- I danger, the safety of the whole body. The A. of a limb was in ancient times attended with great danger of the patient’s dying during its performance, as surgeons had no efficient means of restraining the bleeding. They rarely ventured to remove a large portion of a limb, and when they did so, they cut in the gangrened parts, where they knew the vessels would not bleed; the smaller limbs they chopped off with a mallet and chisel; and in both cases-had hot irons at hand with which to sear the raw surfaces, boiling-oil in which to dip the stump, and various resins, mosses, and fungi, supposed to possess the power of arresting hæmorrhage. Some tightly bandaged the limbs they wished to remove, so that they mortified and dropped off; and others amputated with red hot knives, or knives made of wood or horn dipped in vitriol. The desired power of controlling the hæmorrhage was obtained by the invention of the tourniquet (q. v.) in 1674′by a French surgeon Morell. The ancient surgeons endeavored to save a covering of skin for the stump, by having the skin drawn upwards by an assistant, previously to using the knife. In 1679, Lowdham of Exeter suggested cutting semi-circular flaps on one or both sides of a limb, so as to preserve a fleshy cushion to cover the end of the bone.. Both these methods are now in use, and are known as the ‘circular’ and the ‘flap’ operations: the latter is most frequently used in this country.

A ‘ flap’ amputation is performed thus : The patient being placed; in the most convenient position, an assistant compresses the main artery of the limb with his thumb, or a tourniquet is adjusted over it. Another assistant supports the limb. The surgeon with. one hand lifts the tissues from the bone, and transfixing them with a long narrow knife, cuts rapidly downwards and towards the surface of the skin, forming a flap; he then repeats this on the other side of the limb. An assistant now draws up these flaps, and the knife is carried round the bone, dividing any flesh still adhering to it. The surgeon now saws the bone. He then, with a small forceps, seizes the end of the main artery, and drawing it slightly from the tissues, an assistant ties it with a thread. All the vessels being secured the flaps are stitched together with a needle and thread, and a piece of wet lint is laid over the wound. An expert surgeon can remove a limb thus in from 30 to 60 seconds.

A’NGER is displeasure or vexation accompanied by a passionate desire to break out in acts or words of violence against the cause of the displeasure; which must, of course, be a sentient being capable of feeling the infliction. Like most other emotions, it is accompanied by effects on the body, and in this case they are of a very marked kind. The arterial blood-vessels are highly excited; the pulse, during the paroxysm, is strong and hard, the face becomes red and swollen, the brow wrinkled, the eyes protrude, the whole body is put into commotion. The secretion of bile is excessive, and it seems to assume a morbid consistency. In cases of violent passion, arid especially in nervous persons, this excitement of the organs soon passes to the other extreme of depression; generally, this does not take place till the A. has subsided, when there follows a period of general relaxation. The original tendency to A. differs muck in individuals according to temperament; but frequent giving way to it begets a habit, and increases the natural tendency.
From the nature of A., it is easy to see that it must be—often at least—prejudicial to health. It frequently gives rise to bile-fever, inflammation of the liver, heart, or brain, or even to mania. These effects follow immediately a fit of the passion; other evil effects come on, after a time, as the consequence of repeated paroxysms—such as paralysis, jaundice, consumption and nervous fever. The milk of a mother or nurse in a fit of passion will cause convulsions in the child that sucks; it has been known even to occasion instant death, like a strong poison.
The controlling of A. is a part of moral discipline. In a rudimentary state of society, its active exercise would seem to be a necessity; by imposing some restraint on the selfish aggressions of one individual upon another, it renders the beginnings of social co-operation and intercourse possible. This is its use, or, as it is sometimes called, its final cause. But the more social intercourse comes to be regulated by customs and laws, the less need is there for the vindictive expression of A. It seems an error, however, to suppose that the emotion ever will be—or that it ought to be—extirpated. Laws themselves lose their efficacy when they have not this feeling for a background; and it remains as a last resource for man, when society, as it does every now and then, resolves itself into its elements. Even in the most artificial and refined states of society, those minor moralities on which half the happiness of social intercourse depends, are imposed upon the selfish, in great measure, by that latent fund of A. which every man is known to carry about with him.

ANTI’PATHY is the term applied to a class of cases in which individuals are disagreeably affected by, or violently dislike, things innocuous or agreeable to the majority of mankind. These peculiarities are no doubt sometimes acquired in early life by injudiciously terrifying children with some object, the mental impression becoming permanent. A large class of persons have an A, to animal food, and from childhood refuse to taste it. In others, again, the aversion is limited to one kind of meat, as veal or pork; others are averse to eggs or milk. Nor is this feeling a conscious caprice, which an exertion of the will might remove; for it is generally found that contact with the object of the A. is resented by the bodily economy, and symptoms of poisoning are rapidly produced. Some are affected with these symptoms who have no mental aversion to the article. We read of a countess who had a liking for beef-udder, but directly it touched her lips they became swollen. There is also the case of a boy, who, ‘if at any time he ate of an egg, his lips would swell, in his face would rise purple and black spots, and he would froth at the mouth.’ Some medicines affect particular persons dangerously, even when given in very minute doses: a single grain of mercury has been known to induce a profuse salivation, with destruction of the jawbones. On others, medicines have a peculiar effect—astringents my purge. Every summer, in Great Britain, persons may be seen with the most distressing irritation of the nasal and palpebral mucus membranes, produced by the exhalations arising from the fields during the inflorescence of the hay-crop. In others, an asthmatic condition is induced by the same cause. The air of some places has a similar influence on individuals: one gentleman was always attacked with asthma if he slept in the town of Kilkenny, and another rarely escaped a fit of that complaint if he slept anywhere else.

The most remarkable antipathies are those affecting the special senses. Nearly all persons have a loathing at reptiles, but some few faint on seeing a toad or lizard, others on seeing insects. ‘ The Duke d’Epernon swooned at sight of a leveret—a hare did not induce the same effect. Tycho Brahe fainted at sight of a fox, Henry III of France at that of a cat, and Marshal d’Albert at a pig.’—Millingen.

Hearing a wet finger drawn on glass, the grinding of knives, or a creaking wheel, is sufficient to produce fainting in some. Smelling mink or ambergris throws some into convulsions; and we have seen how articles of food affect others—often, no doubt, owing to perverted taste. The touch of anything unusually smooth has the same effect sometimes. Zimmerman records the case of a lady who was thus affected by the feeling of silk, satin, or the velvety skin of a peach.—This subject is also noticed under idiosyncrasy.

POSTULA’TION (Lat. ‘an asking’), in Canon Law, means a presentation or recommendation addressed to the superior, to whom the right of appointment to any dignity belongs, in favor of one who has not a strict title to the appointment. It is one of the forms of proposing to the pope persons nominated, but not, strictly speaking, elected, to a bishopric. It is also used in the case of elections in which the candidate, although regularly chosen by the electors, yet labors under some legal disability which involves the necessity of a dispensation. The presentation of candidates for the episcopacy, as it exists in the Roman Catholic Church in Ireland, is called postulation.

POT-WALLERS, or POT-WALLOPERS (from pot, and Old English wall, to boil or bubble), the popular designation of a class of electors forming the constituency of various English boroughs —as Ilchester, Honiton Tregoney, Old Sarum— before the Reform Act of 1832, whose qualification as housekeepers was considered to be established by their boiling a pot within the limits of the borough over a fireplace erected in the open air. The doing so was regarded as evidence that the elector was in circumstances to provide for his own subsistence, and not necessitated to apply for parochial relief.

PATENT OFFICE LIBRARY, and MUSEUM. The present organization of these establishments arose mainly out of the act relating to Patents (q. v.) passed in 1852. Rooms were rented in Southampton Buildings, London, for the office as reorganized; a superintendent of specifications was appointed; and a plan was adopted for making the system as useful to the public as possible.

The Office.—All the specifications of patents from the earliest date were examined, and minutely classified according to their contents. The patents from 1711 to 1852 were found to amount to the large number of 12.977; and the specifications of the whole of these were printed between 1853 and 1858. There were a few of earlier date, between 1617 and 1711, but none in so complete a form as to render them worth printing. The whole fill many hundred quarto volumes, with the lithographed illustrations bound in separate folio volumes. The expense of the whole undertaking—for paper, printing, and lithographing—was £92.000; the number of copies printed was small; but any single specification can be reprinted if a demand for it should arise. The next work was to utilize this immense collection by a thorough system of indexing. Three indexes were prepared— Chronological, Alphabetical (according to the names of the inventors), and Subject-matter. Arrangements were at the same time made for printing and indexing the specifications of all patents obtained under the new law (1852); and this has been done year by year. (The total number of patents from 1617 to 1878 exceeded 100,000.) These specifications are sold to the public at the price of paper and print, varying from 1-Jd, to about 4s., averaging about 8d. each. The printing and publishing are completed within three weeks of the time when each final specification reaches the hands of the superintendent. Any copy of any of these, if stamped and certified, is received in any court of law or equity in the kingdom, in evidence of the patent to which it relates, without the necessity of producing the original document itself.

There are generally over 4000 petitions for new patents every year; about 800 of the petitioners usually fail to give notice of their intention to proceed, and 200 more fall away before the actual sealing of the patent; so that, roughly speaking, about 3000 specifications of patents are added to the list every year. Of this number, not more than 500 to 600 over-live three years. In 1878, 5343 applications for patents were made; but 1905 of these lapsed during the year, for various reasons. The old and new specifications from 1711 to 1878, amounting to 110,334, have all been printed and published. These works are acquiring ever-increasing value as standards of reference for intending patentees. To render the new specifications equally available with those of older date, three indexes are prepared for each year’s collection, of the kinds already described. There has also been prepared a reference index to the whole series. In 1871, a new plan was adopted, of publishing weekly abridgments of the specifications of new patents : dispensing with any further alphabetical and subject-matter indexes. Besides this, abridgments have been drawn up of most of the specifications, and will be eventually of all: setting forth, in a few words, the general nature of the invention. These abridgments are collected into 12mo volumes, one or more to each class of subjects; and the volumes are sold at 6d. to 10s. each, according to their bulk. At the end of 1878, there were 115 volumes of these useful works, relating to no less than 94 groups or classes of abridgments. By reference to one of these handy volumes, or to the Subject-matter index, an inventor can see whether any person lias preceded him in the particular subject for which he desires a patent.

The Library and Reading-room.—Special arrangements are made to render the specifications, and all that relates to them, as avail-able as possible to the public. Complete sets of the printed specifications, indexes, &c., have been presented to universities, government offices, provincial towns, colonies, and foreign governments; and partial sets to 300 mechanics’ institutes and scientific and literary societies. A complete set comprised in 1880 above 3600 volumes, from folio to 12mo, and cost no less than £3500 for paper, printing, and lithographing; about 160 of these complete sets have been presented. At the head office in Southampton Buildings, a Reading-room has been provided, open to such of the public as may wish to consult the specifications at their leisure. But besides this, the commissioners have gradually become possessed of a large and valuable collection of scientific and technical books and periodicals, to which additions are every year made by purchase. A new Library and Reading-room, occupying the upper part of the old building, has been constructed at a cost of £15,000, and was finished and opened in 1867. All the scientific and technical works of the Library of 80,000 volumes, as well as the specifications of the patents, may here be consulted.

The Museum.—The commissioners having come into possession, by gift and otherwise, of several models illustrating patented inventions, had no place of their own to deposit them for preservation and exhibition. But an arrangement was made with the authorities at South Kensington for the reception of these models; and. greatly augmented by specimens, drawings, diagrams, and portraits, the Patent Museum now occupies a site adjacent to the South Kensington Museum.

The commissioners have for many years sought permission to erect a large and handsome building to accommodate the whole of their departments—offices, Library, Reading-room, and Museum. They possess the pecuniary means, but lack the authority. Their receipts exceed £100,000 a year, in the form of fees from patentees; and after a very liberal expenditure for salaries, superannuation allowances, editing, compiling, printing, purchase of books and periodicals, &c., there is a considerable surplus. A clause in the act of 1852 prevents them from buying land and erecting buildings without the consent of the Treasury. One suggestion made by the commissioners is for permission to build a new street to be formed from the Horse Guards to the Thames Embankment; and another is, that the new building should be on the Embankment itself, a still more prominent site.

PATENT LAWS. Since the introduction of the amended Patent Law in 1852 (see PATENTS), many manufacturers have boldly advocated the abolition of the patent system altogether; on the plea, that the good results, whatever they may be, are overbalanced by the bad. The great majority of advisers, however, call for further reform, not abolition. The Economic Section of the British Association has discussed this matter during a long series of years. The Society of Arts, also, have had many discussions on the subject; and the arguments pro and eon. will be found at length in the Transactions of these bodies. The various Chambers of Commerce throughout the kingdom have likewise debated the subject at length. The actual operation of the system may be briefly illustrated. Mr. Bennett Woodcroft, in 1864, examined 100 patents out of those which had been applied for in 1855. Of the 100, he found 96 frivolous in character, of little or no value as to the merit of the inventions; 4 of moderate value; and not one of striking promise. Out of the 100 applications, 70 patents were granted, of which one became void at the end of six months, 51 more at the end of three years, and 15 more at the end of seven years—because the patentees declined to pay the successive instalments of fees. There were therefore, in 1863, only 3 patents left out of the 100 which had been applied for in 1855. Mr. Woodcroft finds that about the same ratio is exhibited in the whole of the 3000 or so applied for every year. In 100 of the average applications in 1858, he pronounced that there was not one invention of much value, 3 of some, and 97 of little or no value. In 1862, he found 1 of much, 1 of some, and 98 of little or no value. As to statistics of actual numbers, see patent office, library and museum.

In 1862, a royal commission was appointed to consider the whole subject of the patent laws, and to suggest alterations which might be useful. The commission collected evidence in that and the two following years, and made its Report in 1864. Other commissions and committees have made later inquiries, and offered suggestions founded on the evidence collected; but the opinions expressed, on almost every point, are most conflicting. The divided opinion of practical men has hitherto discouraged any attempt to legislate on their recommendations; and the act of 1852 remains still in force.

PATENT is an exclusive right granted by the crown (in letters patent or open, whence the name) to an individual to manufacture and sell a chattel or article of commerce of his own invention. The policy of the present law of patents has latterly been much canvassed, and it has been suggested that, instead of the present monopoly, with the drawback of litigation to which it uniformly gives rise, the use of all inventions should be dedicated to the public at once, and the inventor rewarded by a pension from the state, according to the merits and utility of the invention. The present law allows the inventor to have a monopoly of his invention for fourteen years, with a further privilege at the end of that time, provided he has not been sufficiently remunerated, to have the patent renewed for a further term of fourteen years. That some mode of rewarding the individual whose perseverance and ingenuity have enabled him to discover a new invention should be established, is universally admitted, but whether it should be at the expense of that part of the public who are purchasers, and therefore benefited by his discovery, or by the public at large in the shape of a pension, is a matter still undecided. The evils of the present law are that there is a great deal of uncertainty in the mode of ascertaining what is a new invention. Hence, when a patent has been granted, if it is of such a nature as to lead to competition, infringements are almost matters of course, and the only mode of discovering and checking the infringement is so tedious, costly, and ineffective, that inventors generally pass their lives in constant litigation, fighting in detail a succession of imitators who often have nothing to lose by defeat, and therefore entail all the greater burden on the legitimate manufacturer.

It has been said that not more than three patents per cent. are remunerative. A royal commission has latterly been engaged in inquiries as to the best mode of remunerating inventors, and improving the law in reference to infringements; but it is doubtful how far the subject is capable of being put on a better footing, so many difficulties being inherent in it. The crown seems always to have enjoyed the prerogative right to grant monopolies, and this had been so greatly perverted in the time of Elizabeth, that the popular clamor led to a statute in the following reign, having for its object to prevent the crown in future making any grants of that kind which should be prejudicial to the interests of trade. By that act an exception was expressly made in favor of new inventions. At first the judges construed grants of monopoly to inventors very strictly; but afterwards it was seen that they were for the benefit of trade, and were dealt with more liberally. An important modification of the law was introduced by a statute of Queen Anne, which required every inventor to describe in detail the nature of the invention in an instrument called a specification. Another statute of 5 and 6 Will. IV. c. 83, further altered the law by allowing parties who had a difficulty in separating what was new from what was old in their invention to enter an express disclaimer of that part which was not new. But the most important alteration was made in 1852, by the statute of 15 and 16 Vict. c. 83, which reduced the fees, and otherwise improved the practice attending the obtaining of patents for the United Kingdom. Before stating shortly the substance of this act, it may be observed that there lias always been a difficulty in defining what is an invention that is patentable—a difficulty which no act of parliament can get rid of, for it is inherent in the subject-matter. It lias been held that a patent must be not merely a discovery of a new substance or article of food, but it must be a combination of processes producing some new result, or an old result by different means. It is of the essence of the patent that it be entirely new, that is, that it should not have been described in a published book, or well known in the business of the world, nor publicly used before. The specification must give a full disclosure of the secret, and describe it so that an intelligent person could from the description make the article itself.

There is a patent office in London, in Edinburgh, and in Dublin, but the Scotch and Irish offices have long been used only as places for inspecting copies of patents, specifications. and documents. From 1852 till the new Act of 1883 came into force, the commissioners of patents were the Lord Chancellor, Master of the Rolls, Attorney and Solicitor General of England and Ireland, and the Lord Advocate and Solicitor-General of Scotland. The inventor first presented a petition for a grant of letters-patent, accompanied by a statement in writing of the specification, a copy of which was left at the patent-office. The application was referred, as a matter of course, to one of the law officers of the crown, who might call to his aid a scientific person to be paid by the applicant. A provisional patent might be applied for in the first instance, and the complete patent deferred for six months— the patent dating from the first application. After a patent was granted, and had been in existence for three years, a fee of £50 fell to be paid; and, at the end of the seven years, a fee of £100. The letters-patent extend to the whole of the United Kingdom. The practice with reference to patents, especially as to the drawing of the specification, was too minute to justify an inventor to attempt to take out a patent without professional aid; and a class of persons called patent agents (a business for which no qualifications were required by any constituted authority) devoted themselves to this branch of business—their charges (often exorbitant) being generally ascertained by estimate beforehand. The fees payable to the law officers were as follows : On leaving petition for grant of letters-patent, £5; on notice of intention to proceed with application, £5; on warrant of law officer for letters-patent, £5; on sealing of letters-patent, £5; on filing specifications, £5; at or before expiration of third year, £50; at or before expiration of seventh year, £100. Besides these fees, if opposition was entered to the grant, additional fees were incurred, both by the party applying and the party opposing.

At the date of the passing of the Patents, Designs, and Trade Marks Act of 1883, there were nine acts on patents more or less fully in force; and six others on copyright of designs. Now the management of this branch of the public service is put under the Science and Art Department, and the new responsible official, called the Comptroller of "Patents, is an officer of the Board of Trade—from whose decisions, however, there is in certain cases an appeal to a court comprising some of the chief law officers of the crown. There is a paid examiner of patents, to whom applications are first submitted. Heretofore, seven different applications were necessary; now one suffices, and that may be sent through the post. The formulas are simplified, with the hope of enabling the patentee to dispense with the services of patent agents. In contrast with the scale of fees given above, the charges under the new law are : £1 paid down at once, when the provisional specification is lodged at the Patent Office; £3 more after nine months, when the final specification is passed by the Comptroller, and sealed; £50 after the fourth year ; and £100 after the ninth. The latter two payments may be made in annual instalments. (The Board of Trade has power hereafter to reduce the fees, on obtaining the consent of the Treasury.) A register of patents is to he kept, and an Illustrated Journal of Patents officially published. Patents, as formerly, hold for 14 years, and extend to the whole of the United Kingdom.

A patent obtained in this country does not extend to the colonies, but several of the colonies have machinery for granting patents for a like period. In the United States, patents are granted for a term of 17 years. In France, the term is 5, 10. or 15 years, at the option of the applicant; in Prussia, for 15 years; in Russia, for 3, 5, or 10 years; in Spain, for 5, 10, or 15 years; in Belgium, for 20 years; in Holland, for 5, 10, or 15 years; in Austria, not more than 15 years; in Sardinia, 15 years. In all cases, fees are exigible from the patentee. See patent laws and patent office.

POOR, GENERAL laws as to. The fundamental rule as to the relief of the poor was, that each parish in England and Wales is bound to maintain its own poor. For the purpose of providing the requisite machinery, overseers are required to be appointed in each parish every year on the 25th March, or within a fortnight following; and these, along with the churchwardens, who are ex officio overseers, have the duty of providing the requisite funds. See overseers. This is done by means of a poor-rate, which the churchwardens and overseers may levy on all the occupiers of land in the parish, after such rate has been confirmed by the justices. The rate specifies a certain sum in the pound which is to be levied, and the annual value of the various lands is then specified, and the amount is thus easily computed. The rate is thus a local tax on the occupier of the land, and not on the owner, unless he himself is also occupier. In all cases, the duty of raising the funds attaches to the overseers; but the actual distribution and application of them are not always in their immediate control. Owing to the mischiefs arising from the officials of each parish distributing the funds at their discretion, without uniformity of plan, a central controlling power was created in 1834, in the shape of the Poor-law Board; and authority was given to combine various parishes into one poor-law union, for the purpose of greater uniformity as well as economy. When a union is formed, the control of the expenditure is chiefly vested in the guardians of this union, who are elected by each parish, and who supervise the management of the union workhouse. They order the overseers of each parish to raise their due proportion of funds, by a contribution order issued to such overseers, who are thereon bound to levy the amount by including it in the next poor-rate. The guardians are bound to contract for the provisions, clothing, fuel, &c., supplied to the workhouse, by means of sealed tenders, unless the quantity is less than a stated amount. All the controlling powers formerly vested in the Poor-law Board are now transferred to the Local Government Board.

The principle on which relief is administered to the poor is, that the condition of the pauper should not be so comfortable as that of the lowest independent laborer; otherwise, idleness and imposture would be encouraged to an indefinite extent. The guardians profess only to relieve destitution already existing, and not to enable persons to keep off impending destitution. Hence they only supply the bare necessaries of life. They cannot, for example, advance or lend money to set up a poor person in trade. Minute regulations are contained in the consolidated poor-law orders of the Board as to the classification of paupers in the workhouse, mode of admission, diet, discipline, and out-door relief. With regard to out-door relief and able-bodied paupers, it is provided, that every able-bodied person requiring relief from any parish, shall be relieved wholly in the workhouse, together with his wife and family, if any, and if not otherwise employed. But the relief may be given out of doors in cases of sudden and urgent necessity, of sickness, accident and a few other cases. In general, relief is confined to persons actually residing in some place within the union, except in case of casual destitution, or sickness and accident. Whenever out-door relief is given to an able-bodied person, half of it is to be in the form of articles of food or fuel. Relief is given only weekly, where the pauper is not required to be received into the workhouse. No relief is to be given to able-bodied persons while they are employed for wages or hire by any person; and every able-bodied male person, if relieved out of the workhouse, shall be set to work by the guardians, and kept so employed while he continues to receive such relief. The law with regard to the relief of the poor is so far qualified, that wherever a person applies for parochial relief, if he or she has a father or grandfather, mother or grandmother, or child, who is able to maintain such pauper, then the parish officers can obtain an order from justices to compel such relative to contribute a sum towards such maintenance. So husbands or fathers of paupers are bound to contribute to such maintenance. In all cases, the pauper is relieved either in the workhouse or out of the workhouse, according to the regulations of the poor-law orders.

In some cases, the guardians or overseers may employ the poor in public works; but this is seldom done, except on occasions like the Lancashire distress. The law as to the settlement of the poor is somewhat intricate, and gives rise to much ligitation. There are various grounds on which this settlement is acquired. Thus every person has, prima facie, a settlement in the parish where he was born, until, some other is proved; and there are so many other qualifications, that it is seldom a birth-settlement is resorted to. By marriage, a woman immediately acquires the settlement of her husband, if he has one, whether the husband be an Englishman or a foreigner. If the husband has no settlement, then the wife is thrown back on her maiden settlement. Formerly, a person acquired a settlement in a parish by hiring and service, and by residence for forty days under such hiring; but since 1834, no such settlement can be acquired. If any person shall be bound an apprentice by indenture, and reside forty days under such apprenticeship, he or she acquires a settlement thereby. So whoever shall rent a tenement in a parish, and actually occupy the same, and be rated to the poor for one whole year, the rent being not less than £10, and paid by the person so actually occupying the tenement, shall acquire a settlement. So a person acquires a settlement by acquiring an estate in land, however, small in value, and residing forty days in the parish. So. if a person buy an estate, and the consideration amount to £30 at least, he shall thereby acquire a settlement. Formerly, a settlement was acquired by serving a public annual office, such as that of constable, overseer, &c.; but no settlement is now acquired on that ground. Unless a pauper has acquired a settlement on one or other of the grounds before mentioned in the parish or union where he receives relief, he is liable to be removed compulsorily to the parish where he last acquired a settlement. Certain persons, however, cannot be removed, and these are called irremovable paupers. Such are those paupers who have resided for one whole year in the parish or union in which they became destitute.

The mode of computing this one year is, however, somewhat difficult in certain cases. The expense of maintaining the pool-generally is paid out of the common fund, and not by each parish in the union. When a pauper is sought to be removed, it is necessary to take him before two justices of the peace for examination; and on proper evidence of his settlement, the justices will make the order of removal, which is an authority to the overseers to take or send the pauper to the overseers of the parish of settlement. If, however, the pauper is too ill at the time to admit of removal without danger, the justices may suspend the order of removal till lie is recovered. Whenever a pauper is to be removed the removing union is bound to give notice to the union of settlement; and it is on these occasions that so many obstinate and costly litigations take place as to which is the union of settlement. Much litigation was avoided by substituting a union for a parish as the test. The union also may appeal to the Court of Quarter-sessions against the removal order; and the Quarter-sessions may state a case for the opinion of the Court of Queen’s Bench, if any nice point of law should arise, as frequently happens.

In Scotland, there was no systematic provision for the relief of the poor until 1845. when the statute of 8th and 9th Vict. c. 83 was passed. By this statute, a central board (called the Board of Supervision) was established, which controls the parochial board of each parish or union of parishes in a manner similar to the Poor-law Board in England. A settlement can be acquired in Scotland by residence of live years. Children follow the settlement of their parents, and wives that of their husbands; and if no other settlement be proved, then the settlement of birth is liable. In Scotland, the mode of assessment differs from that in England, where only the annual value of lands and tenements can be rated in the hands of the occupier.

The parochial board had the option of three modes of assessment: 1. One half to be paid by owners, and one half by the occupiers; 2. One half to be paid by owners of lands, and the other half to be paid by all the inhabitants, according to means and substance other than lands; 3. Assessing owners of lands and other inhabitants rateably according to their means and substance. But by a later act of 24th and 25th Vict. 37, the mode of assessing means and substance is abolished. It will thus be seen that in Scotland the poor-rate can never be imposed wholly on the occupier as it, always is in England.

In Ireland, a Poor-law Act was also, in 1838, passed, and numerous amending statutes have followed, the code of laws being substantially founded on the English acts.

There are special acts of parliament regulating the conditions on which paupers are removable between England, Scotland, and Ireland respectively.