grain distillers. The main defect lies undoubtedly in the very imperfect saccharification of the fecula of the corn in the mashing process, which, in our opinion, would require to be entirely remodelled, and conducted upon sounder and more scientific principles. (about one-tenth of a pint), he had obtained a produce of spirit corresponding very nearly with the result of the distillation of ten gallons of the same wash in a proper still. And Mr. O. Smith, when closely questioned, admitted that means might be devised to enable an excise officer to perform the above analytical distillation In the huge fermenting vats used by the corn distillers with as great precision as the scientific man who had con- of this country, the fermentation goes on far more slowly trived the apparatus for him. The prevent've check, or than when conducted upon the moderate scale referred to attenuation, as it is called, which the excise apply to the fer- in the account of this process given above. About 1 gallon mented wash, is good for very little against a fraudulent of yeast is added at first for every 100 gallons of wort, and distiller, because he can so easily introduce immediately a half gallon additional upon each of the succeeding four before the visit of the officer, towards the end of the fer- days, making in the whole 3 per cent.; when less can be made mentation, such a quantity of salt as will so alter the den- to suffice, the spirits will be better flavoured. The fersty as completely to disguise and conceal seven or eight per mentation goes on during from six to twelve days, according cent. of the spirit, without in the least injuring its quality to the modifying influence of the circumstances above n the act of distillation. In fact, Mr. O. Smith acknow- enumerated. After the fifth or sixth day, the tuns are ledges to its full extent the futility, or rather nullity, of covered in, so as to obstruct, in a certain degree, the disthat check, for he says, 'I conceive that any check which charge of the carbonic acid, as it is supposed that this gas does not approximate any nearer to the fact than that just in excess favours fermentation. The temperature is usually alluded to (the attenuated gravity), is almost useless, inas- greatest on the fourth or fifth day, when it sometimes rises much as a distiller willing to evade the duty, could do so, to 85° Fahr., from the starting pitch of 60° or 56°. Whenas the difference between the charge of the saccharometer ever the attenuation has reached the lowest point by the and the actual spirit produced, allows ample room for the hydrometer, the wash ought to be distilled, since immemost exorbitant smuggler." * Mr. William Baker, sur-diately afterwards the alcohol begins to be converted into veying-general examiner of excise, describes a mode of acetic acid. This acidification may be partially repressed smuggling the spirits which would enable the distiller to by the exclusion of atmospheric oxygen. make the quantity run off coincide with the quantity shown III. Distillation. by the above fraudulent density. There was a pipe fastened before it came to the end of the worm, and it was arned through the wall into another part of the buildg' Any person may perceive how easy it is, with the actual distillatory apparatus, to lead a small branch tube bom any point of the worm through the side or bottom of the worm-tub into a concealed subterraneous receiver. It is curious to contrast the actual insecurity of the revenue from the distillation of whiskey with the multiplicity of precautions taken to prevent frauds; self-interest on the ne hand being so much stronger and sharper than duty on the other. 'Examinations with us are constantly making; for xample, we are surveyed this morning at six o'clock, the dicers take their accounts and gauges, make calculations, and do a great deal of work, occupying several hours: at ten o'clock they again survey, going over the whole ground, where they continue a considerable time, frequently until the succeeding officer comes on duty: at evening too another survey takes place, similar to the former, but not by the same people; then at evening, six, the survey is repeated: at evening, ten, there comes another survey, by an officer who had not been engaged in any of the previous surveys that day. He is not relieved until morning, six, of the day following; in addition to which, we are subject to frequent and uncertain visits of the surveyor and general surveyor: we are never out of their hands.' There is no chemical apparatus which has undergone so many metamorphoses as the still and condenser. In its simplest form it has been already represented and described. [ALEMBIC.] It may be considered to have reached its highest point of perfection, as to power and rapidity of work, in Scotland, when the distillers paid a stipulated sum per annum to the revenue for the privilege of a still of a certain size, and when therefore they derived a profit proportionable to the quantity of spirits they could run off in a given time. In the year 1799, from a report presented to the House of Commons, it appears that the Scotch distillers at that time were able to work off 80 gallons of wash in eight minutes, and the duty was levied accordingly; but very soon afterwards they contrived means of doing the same thing in about three minutes. The stills made for such rapid operation were shallow, and exposed a great surface to the fire. One of them is figured and described in Ure's Dictionary of Chemistry.' Since the year 1815, the whiskey duties have been levied on the quantity distilled, independent of the capacity of the still. This change has introduced a modification in the distilling apparatus, with the view of combining purity of product with economy of time. The body of the still is still comparatively flat, so as to expose a large surface to the fire; but the tapering upper part, corresponding to the capital of an alembic, is made very long, rising sometimes 15 or 20 feet before it terminates in the worm pipe or refrigeratory for condensation. It is computed that every 5 degrees of attenuation, as it is called, that is, every diminution of the number 5 upon the specific gravity in the third place of decimals, ought to Great distilleries are usually mounted with two stills, a produce 1 per cent. of proof spirit, or 1 gallon out of 100, as larger and a smaller. The former is the wash still, and formerly stated; so that if the wort be set at 1.055, and serves to distil from the fermented worts a weak crude come down to 1.000, 11 gallons of proof spirits are charge- spirit called low wines; the latter is the low-wine still, acle upon each 100 of such wash. In the fermentation of and rectifies by a second process the product of the first szar worts, 1 gallon of proof spirits was calculated for distillation. In these successive distillations a quantity of every four similar degrees of attenuation. But distillation fetid oil, derived from the corn, comes over along with the f sugar or molasses-wash is now illegal. With first and last portions received, and constitutes by its comcorn-wash, there is never more than four-fifths of the bination what is styled the strong and weak faints in the saccharine matter decomposed into alcohol and carbo-language of the distilleries. These milky faints are careacid, in the best-managed fermentation, and fre- fully separated from the limpid spirit by turning them quently indeed much less. In fact, each pound of real as they begin to flow from the worm-end into distinct sugar may be resolved by a successful process into half a channels, which lead to separate receivers. pound of alcohol, or into about one pound of proof spirit, and hence as a solution of sugar at the density of 1.060, conas 15 per cent. by weight, or 16 per cent. by measure, uch is nearly 1.7 pounds per gallon, it should yield early 170 pounds from 100 gallons, or 180 pound measures equal to 18 gallons of proof spirit; whereas 100 gallons of corn-wash, fermented at the above density, are computed by the excise law to yield only 12 gallons, and seldom prodate more than 13 and a small fraction. There is thus therefore a wide difference between the produce of spirit fron real saccharine matter as fermented by the man of sence, and the produce obtained by our best malt and • Report on the use of Molasses, &c., 1831, p. 185, Q. 2720. + Ibid., p. 179, Q. 2612. Thomas Smith, Esq. of Whitechapel-road, distiller, in Molasses Comatce Report, p. 148, Q. 2199. P. C., No. 534. From these receivers the various qualities of spirit, low wines, and faints, are, for the purpose of redistillation, pumped up into charging backs, from which they are run in gauged quantities into the low-wine and spirit stills. The pumps afford many facilities to the fraudulent distiller for abstracting spirits without the cognizance of the excise, and thus injuring at once the fair dealer and the revenue. It would be easy to arrange a distillery so that pumps would be quite superseded, with their numerous joints and screws, and to conduct the spirituous liquids from the appropriate receivers to the chargers and stills, on successive levels, through a series of pipes, without external orifice. One of the greatest improvements in modern distillation is the accomplishment of this essential analysis of the impure spirit at one operation. Chemistry had been long. VOL. IX.-E humiliar with the pneumatic apparatus of Woulfe, without rectifier for intercepting the greater part of the watery parhinking of its adaptation to distillery apparatus, when ticles, and the whole of the corn oil; and third, the refrigeEdouard Adam, an illiterate operative, after attending by rator. Such a construction is represented in fig. 1, 2, and 3, accident a chemical lecture at Montpellier, where he saw in which the resources of the most refined French stills are that apparatus, immediately employed it for obtaining fine combined with a simplicity and solidity of construction brandy, of any desired strength, at one and the same heat.' suited to the grain distilleries of the United Kingdom. He obtained a patent for this invention in July, 1801, and Three principal objects are obtained by this arrangement. soon afterwards was enabled by his success to set up in that first, the extraction from fermented wort or wine, at one city a magnificent distillery, which attracted the admira- operation, of a spirit of any desired cleanness and strength; tion of all the practical chemists of the day. In November, second, a great economy of time, labour, and fuel; third, 1805, he obtained a certificate of improvements whereby he freedom from all danger of blowing up or boiling over by could extract from wine, at one process, the whole of mismanaged firing. When a mixture of the alcohol, water, its alcohol. Adam was so overjoyed after making his and essential oil, in the state of vapour, is passed upwards first experiments, that, like another Archimedes, he ran through a series of winding passages, maintained at a reabout the streets telling every body of the surprising regulated degree of heat, from 170° to 180°, the alcohol alone, sults of his new invention. About the same time, Solimani, in notable proportion, retains the elastic form, and proceeds professor of chemistry at Montpellier, and Isaac Berard, onward into the refrigeratory tube, in which these passages distiller in the department of Gard, having contrived two terminate, while the water and the oil are in a great meadistinct systems of apparatus, each most ingenious, and sure condensed and retained in these passages, so as to drop obtaining results little inferior to those of Adam, became back into the body of the still, and be discharged with the in consequence formidable rivals of his fame and fortune. effete residuum. Into the description of these stills, of those of Derosne, Baglioni, &c., on the continent, or of their many modifications in this country, the limits of this article do not allow us to enter. In the treatises of Lenormand and Dubrunfaut, the construction of stills is described with a minuteness of detail sufficient to satisfy the most curious inquirers. We shall content ourselves with investigating the scientific principles of a perfect spirit still, and with a delineation of its outlines. The boiling point of alcohol varies with its strength, in conformity with the numbers in the following table. The system of channels shown in fig. 2 is so contrived as to bring the compound vapours which rise from the alembic A into intimate and extensive contact with me tallic surfaces, immersed in a water-bath, and maintained at any desired temperature by a self-regulating thermostat or heat-governor. The neck of the alembic tapers upwards as shown at B, fig. 1; and at C, fig. 2, it enters the bottom or ingress vestibule of the rectifier CF. F is its top or egress vestibule, which communicates with the under one by parallel cases, or rectangular channels D, D, D, whose width is small compared with their length and height. These cases are open at top and bottom, where they are soldered or riveted into a general frame within the cavity, inclosed by the two covers F, C, which are secured round their edges E, E, E, with bolts and packing. Each case is occupied with a numerous series of shelves or trays, placed at small distances over each other, in a horizontal or slightly inclined position, of which a side view is given in fig. 3, and cross sections at D, D, D, fig. 2. Each shelf is turned up a little at the two edges and the one end, but sloped down at the other end, so that the liquor admitted at the top may be made to flow backwards and forwards in its descent through the system of shelves, as indicated by the spouts in fig. 3. The shelves of each case are framed together by two or more vertical metallic rods, which pass down through them, and are fixed to each shelf. On removing the cover, the sets of shelves may be readily lifted out of the cases to be cleaned; and are hence called moveable. The intervals I, I, I, fig. 2, between the two cases, are left free for the circulation of the water contained in the bath-vessel G, G; these intervals being considerably narrower than the cases. Fig. 4 represents in plan ne surface of the rectifying cistern, shown by two different sections in figs. 2 and 3. H, K, figs. 2 and 4. is the thermostat or heat-governor, shaped somewhat like a pair of tongs. Each leg is a compound bar, consisting of a flat bar or ruler of steel, and one of zinc alloy, riveted facewise together, having their edges up and down. The links at K are joined to the free ends of these compound bars, which receding by increase of temperature, and approaching by its decrease, act through a lever upon the stop-cock L, fixed to the pipe of a cold water reservoir, and are so adjusted by a screw-nut, that whenever the water in the bath-vessel G, G rises above the desired temperature, cold water will be admitted through the stop-cock L and pipe N into the bottom of the cistern, and will displace the over-heated water by the overflow pipe M. Thus à perfect equilibrium of caloric may be maintained, and alcoholic vapour of correspondent uniformity be transmitted to the refrigeratory. deserves peculiar remark, that the greatest distillation with the least fuel is here effected without any pressure in the alembic; for the passages are all pervious to the vapour, whereas, in almost every wash-still heretofore contrived for similar purposes, the spirituous vapours must force their way through successive layers of liquid, the total pressure from which causes undue elevation of temperature, obstruction to the process, and forcing of the junctures. Whatever supplementary refrigeration of the vapours in their passage through the bath may be deemed proper will be administered by the heat-governor. The bath regulated by the thermostat may however be used for obtaining fine spirits at one operation, without transmitting the wash or low wines down through its interior passages; in which case it becomes a simple rectifier. The empyreumatic taint which spirits are apt to contract from the action of the naked fire on the vegetable gluten in contact with the bottom of the still, is somewhat counteracted by Fig. 5 is the refrigeratory, consisting of a double tube, the rotation of chains in the large wash-stills; but it may placed in a zigzag direction, but in one plane, and supported be entirely prevented by placing the still in a bath of strong by the two upright beams. The alcoholic vapour enters at solution of muriate of lime RR, fig. 1, regulated by a therthe orifice K, and descends along the inner tube marked mometer or, still better, a thermostat. Thus a safe and by dotted lines till it becomes condensed by the counter-effectual temperature of from 270° to 290° Fahr. may reacurrent of water continually ascending in the annular space dily be obtained. For further details, see the specification between that block-tin or copper tube, and the outer cast of Dr. Ure's patent still. Iron pipe F. The water of condensation enters into that annular space at the point G, being supplied by the pipe D, and the nose of the stop-cock L. The funnel into which the cold water is poured must be somewhat higher than the point K, from which that water is discharged, after having been heated to the same temperature as that of the alcoholic vapour last exposed to its influence. When water has its particles kept by any means at rest, it becomes a very bad conductor of caloric; it acquires its maximum, conducting or cooling power, only when its particles are set in rapid and continuous motion. The present construction of worm is calculated to effect the most complete refrigeration of the vapours with the smallest expenditure of cold water, and to turn out the spirit at B in the coolest state. It has, moreover, two subsidiary recommendations, one to the distiller, and another to the revenue. Its interior may be most easily cleaned by unscrewing the bolts of the joints C C, and running sponge-rammers through the several straight pipes of which the series consists; no offset or branch pipe can be taken from it secretly, as is often practised upon the worms immersed in worm-tubs for fraudulent purposes. The number of turns in this serpentine may be increased at the pleasure of the distiller; a few only being represented in the figure for the sake of illustration. If a small portion of the overflow hot water be made to trickle down and moisten the outside surfaces of the two or three upper lengths of the serpentine, it will by evaporation produce a considerable degree of coolness, and thereby save cold water. The preceding still apparatus is worked as follows: into the alembic put as much fermented liquor as will protect its bottom from being injured by the fire, when it is not plunged in a bath of muriate of lime, but exposed directly to the fuel. As soon as the ebullition in the alembic has raised the temperature of the water-bath GG to the desired rectifying pitch, whether 170° or 180°, the thermostatic instrument is to be adjusted by its screw-nut, and then the communication with the charging back or cistern is to be opened by moving the index of the stop-cock O over a proper portion of its quadrantal arch. The wash will now descend in a regulated stream through the pipe OF, thence spread into the horizontal tube P P, and issue from the orifices of distribution into the respective flat trays or spouts. The manner of its progress is shown for one set of trays in fig. 3. The direction of the stream in each shelf is evidently the reverse of that in the shelf above and below it; the turned-up end of one shelf corresponding with the discharge slope of its neighbour. By diffusing the cool wash or wine in a thin film over such an ample range of surfaces, the constant tendency of the bath to exceed the proper limit of temperature is counteracted to the utmost without waste of time or fuel; for the wash itself in transitu becomes boiling hot, and experiences a powerful steam distillation. Thus also a very moderate influx of water through the thermostat stopcock suffices to temper the bath; such an extensive vaporization of the wash producing a far more refrigerant influence than its simple heating to the boiling point. It The quantity of proof spirit which paid duty in 1836 was twenty-seven millions of gallons, thirteen millions of which were made in Great Britain, and fourteen millions in Ireland. Of the latter, a considerable quantity was imported into this island. The manufacture of whiskey does not seem to have been diminished in this country as it has been in the United States by the influence of the temperance societies. In 1832 .. 20,778,521 gallons paid excise duty 1836.. 27,137,000 showing an increase which is far out of proportion with that of the population. We may add to the last quantity three millions of gallons on the score of smuggling, in licensed and illicit distilleries; making thirty millions to be the real amount of whiskey consumed by our population of twenty-four millions. [BRANDY, GIN, RUM, THERMOSTAT, WHISKEY.] DISTORTION. Deformity of the person may be advantageously classed for the purpose of discussion under two principal heads: malformation and distortion. The former is, for the most part, congenital, and is usually characterized by the deficiency or redundancy of parts, or by imperfections and irregularities of structure. The latter, arising generally after birth, comprises all permanent deviations from the natural shape or position which are effected by the influence of external or internal force in parts originally soft and flexible, or such as have acquired unnatural pliancy by accident or disease. It is to the latter class of deformities only that our attention is for the present directed. But even thus limited, the subject is so extensive that we must once for all refer the reader for more precise information on several of its most interesting subdivisions to other professional works. I. Every part of the body capable of independent motion is furnished with two sets of muscles, acting in contrary directions, the purpose of which is obviously to bring the part back to its place after movement in either direction. In the position of equilibrium these muscles are not in a state of absolute relaxation even during sleep; on the contrary, they continue to act with considerable energy, each exactly counterbalancing the other. This is called their tone or tension, and it is calculated to give great steadiness to the part thus held at rest between opposite forces. But if one set of the muscles should be suddenly cut across, the tension of their antagonists still remaining in action, the consequence would be a movement in obedience to the latter till the contraction had reached its limit; and the part in question would permanently retain the position into which it had thus been moved. The same effect would result if the muscle, instead of being divided, were paralyzed by the interruption of its nervous communication with the brain. Again, if the tone of one muscle were increased by spasm or otherwise, so as to give it a decided preponderance over its antagonist, the result would be similar. These considerations will sufficiently explain the nature of one large class of distortions, namely, those which result from affections of the brain, muscles, and nerves. 1. The simplest of these is the drawn mouth, or hemi- | formed by the incurvated spine behind the chest the chin plegia. It arises in this way: in consequence of an extrava- is thrust forward, giving an expression to the features very sation of blood or some other cause, the functions of one side characteristic of the dwarf, and rests upon the breast bone, of the brain are interrupted; the muscles of the cheek on which is very prominent: on each side the ribs are flatthe same side, deriving their nerves from that part of the tened, and bulge in upon the lungs. The shoulders, losing brain, are paralyzed, and the retractors of the opposite angle the support of the wreathed and twisted clavicles, approach of the mouth being no longer balanced by an equal force, towards each other in front, drawing with them the scadraw it up towards their origin, and retain it in that position. pulæ, which stick out laterally, and add considerably to the 2. Strabismus, or squinting, is frequently produced in the deformity as seen from behind; the arms, though bent and same way by a partial paralysis of that muscle the office of in reality shortened, seem of disproportionate length; the which is to turn the globe of the eye in the opposite direc- lumbar spine is thrust inwards; the pelvis is small and flattion, or it may arise from undue contraction of the muscle tened; the thighs are bowed forward; the knees, with their patellæ at the side instead of in front of the joint, touch or overlap each other; while the feet are set wide apart, a sudden twist above the ankle still permitting the soles to be set to the ground. Such are some of the varied changes which exhibit a melancholy proof of the prevalence of the disease in every part of the bony frame, and almost defy description. Of course such extreme cases of rickety distortion are comparatively rare; yet almost daily instances are seen by those whose duty calls them into the unwholesome courts and alleys of the metropolis, and slighter examples of the affection are extremely common. on the same side. 3. It is remarkable that hysteria is sometimes accompanied by a distortion of the last-mentioned kind, produced by a spasmodic contraction of the flexor muscles of one of the joints, commonly the knee or hip. For months or years this painful condition may last without mitigation: yet it may vanish all at once under the influence of some powerful impression of the body or mind. The entire loss of the voice, which sometimes comes on suddenly in similar constitutions, and after long resisting every remedy, as suddenly departs, is probably an analogous affection of the muscles of the larynx. 4. Wry-neck is a distortion also due to irregular muscular action. It generally comes on gradually in infancy, and consists in a shortened and contracted state of the sterno-mastoid muscle, of that side to which the head is inclined and from which the face is turned. Club-foot is often nothing more than a similar contraction of the muscles of the calf, which draw up the heel and eventually disturb the integrity of the ankle joint. This complaint also comes on at an early age, and is sometimes congenital. By proper means they both admit of relief, and often of a cure. The list of distortions depending on a morbid condition of the muscular or nervous functions might easily be extended. II. But by far the most common and important class of these affections is that which originates in disease of the bones. 1. The firmness and rigidity of the bones depends upon the due proportion of the earthy matter, phosphate of lime, that enters into their composition. If the proportion of this ingredient be too great, as in old age, and in the disease called fragilitas ossium, they become brittle, and are broken by the slightest causes; if it be too small, they become unnaturally pliant, and are distorted by the pressure of the superincumbent weight, or the contraction of the muscles. The latter condition is prevalent with other structural changes in the disorder called rickets. The medical name of this complaint is rachitis (from páxıç, the spine), and was given to it by Glisson, who first described it, partly because he conceived the vertebræ to be the bones most commonly implicated; but chiefly, it would appear, from the resemblance to the English name. His doctrine was erroneous; and the error perpetuated by the misnomer has led to serious mistakes in practice as well as theory. The spine is undoubtedly liable to partake with the rest of the skeleton in the morbid condition of rickets, but certainly not in a greater degree than the other bones. This malady seldom appears within the ordinary period of lactation, or after puberty. It is ushered in and attended throughout by general febrile disturbance, and is closely connected with a peculiar morbid condition of the nutritive functions. The opinion that it is of scrofulous origin has lately been strongly controverted, and does not in reality appear to be well supported by facts. It is most common among the poor, and in closely-peopled districts, as all the diseases of children are; but it is by no means confined to either, or to children whose constitutions are apparently the most feeble in other respects. Indeed it is a frequent remark, that the most robust and powerful men exhibit tokens of having been rickety in their childhood. Among such indications are smallness of the pelvis, with inward or outward curvature and disproportionate shortness of the lower limbs. This sudden check to the development of the skeleton, constantly observed in rickety children, with the distortion arising from the unnatural softness of the bones, is the most usual cause of the short stature, as well as the proverbial ugliness, of dwarfs. In extreme cases of this complaint the head is generally small and pointed: no longer supported by the yielding and shortened neck, it sinks down between the shoulders; the occiput is thrown back and almost touches the hump Recovery, even from considerable degrees of this affection, is more frequent and rapid than might be imagined; but the pelvis and lower limbs, which, as above mentioned, are the most commonly and extensively implicated, seldom completely regain their natural proportions. This fact, as it regards the female pelvis, is worthy of notice, being the cause of by far the most dangerous kind of difficult parturition. It is in extreme cases of this sort that the Cæsarean section has been practised. Independently of rickety distortion, there are two other kinds of curvature of the spinal column which demand a brief notice. The first, which has frequently been mistaken for rachitis. is usually called lateral curvature, to distinguish it from the more serious kind of distortion next to be considered, which is called angular curvature. 2. Unlike rickets, which almost always commence in in fancy or early childhood, lateral curvature of the spine seldom appears before the tenth year. The external deformity consists in the prominence of one hip (generally the right), and elevation of the corresponding shoulder, the blade of which sticks out in unsightly protuberance behind. The opposite hip and shoulder are respectively flattened and depressed; and the symmetry of the chest. is destroyed, one side being larger than the other, and both twisted and misshapen. On examination the spine is found to have a double curvature sideways so as to resemble the letter S, but generally turned the other way, the concavity of the lower curve being on the right, and the upper on the left side. It arises from weakness in the spinal muscles and local elongations of the ligaments of the vertebræ, from the habit of resting the weight in sitting or standing more on one side than the other; and that side is usually the right. The position is more easy than the upright one, and when not corrected by fitting exercise and change in the nature of the employment, it becomes habitual, and the twist of the person permanent and increasing. The subjects of this kind of distortion are chiefly slender and delicate girls in the middle and upper classes, the voor being comparatively exempt. It comes on insidiously, the attention not being awakened by any particular derangement of the health beyond a certain degree of languor and susceptibility of fatigue, and perhaps a sluggish state of the digestion. The first symptom that betrays its presence is usually a tendency of the dress to slip off the left shoulder. It is much promoted by means often used to prevent it, such as confinement and restraint of the person and posture by stays, backboards, high-backed chairs, reclining on a board, and other contrivances to improve the figure, and restrain the development of the natural form; as well as by the sedentary habits and inappropriate exercises of the academy or school-room. Nature is not to be coerced with impunity by fantastic caprices and contrivances: a good figure as well as good health must be found, if anywhere, in the open air of the fields, in loose and easy clothing, and in unconstrained exercise of the limbs, such as children will always adopt, if left to choose for themselves, in ways much better suited to their age and strength than any that can be invented for them. 3. Angular curvature of the spine is a deformity very and more efficacious means of dealing with it have been introduced; and in certain cases a sale of the property taken by way of distress is allowed, if, after a certain interval, the party distrained upon continues to be unwilling or unable to do the act required. different in its nature and appearance from the last described. It arises for the most part from ulceration of a scrofulous kind in the bodies of the vertebræ. The support in front being thus lost, the spine is sharply bent forwards so that one or more of the spinous processes projeet behind, indicating the position of the diseased vertebræ. Distresses are either for some duty omitted, some default This complaint is attended with incomplete paralysis of the or nonfeasance, or they are in respect of some wrongful act lower extremities, and is not unfrequently fatal. In case of done by the distrainee. recovery the bodies of the contiguous vertebræ are approx- I. As to distresses for omissions, defaults, or nonfeasance. imated and consolidated with what remains of those which-These may be grounded upon noncompliance with some were diseased by the deposition of bony matter. It is in judicial requirements, or they may be made by private indithis species of spinal complaint only that rest and the recum-viduals in vindication of certain rights, for the withholding bent posture are expedient. The observance of these essen- of which the law has entrusted them with this remedy. tial precautions eoncurrently with other means frequently The process out of courts of record ordering such disbrings about a cure; the distortion however is permanent. tresses to be made is called a writ of distringas, which, when Diseases of a similar kind frequently occur in the bones legal proceedings were in Latin, was the word used to direct and joints of other parts of the body; they require similar the sheriff or other officer to make the distress. treatment, and are followed by analogous consolidations and distortions. 4. Rheumatism, and other disorders, and even common inflammations, occurring in a high degree within the joints or in their neighbourhood, occasionally produce like effects. III. Distortions are sometimes occasioned by the contraction of other parts than those which are concerned in motion. 1. Such are those of the fingers which arise from chronic inflammation and permanent contraction of the palmar aponeurosis, or fascia, a strong inelastic and fibrous membrane attached to the projecting points of bone, and stretched beneath the skin of the palm for the protection of the nerves and other soft parts during the act of forcible grasping. There is a similar aponeurosis in the sole of the foot, which is subject, but not so frequently, to the same shortening. Under this division may be also classed those distortions which arise from burns and other extensive destructions and ulcerations of the skin, in consequence of the contraction of the scar in the process of healing. When these injuries take place in the front of the neck and face, the resulting deformity is sometimes frightful. The space between the chin and the breast is filled up by a tense discoloured and corrugated cicatrix, which bows the head for ward and draws down the features so as to expose the inner surface of the lower eyelid and keep the mouth constantly open. When they occur in the flexures of the joints, as in front of the elbow, the cicatrix extends in the form of a hard and rigid web between the humerus and fore-arm, the joint being permanently bent. Such deformities may sometimes be partly removed by an operation; but it is extremely painful, and often unsuccessful. 2. A slight injury of the face below the eye, or the simple contraction from some other cause of the skin of that part may produce the deformity called ectropium, or eversion of the lower lid; and the opposite state of inversion (entropium, or trichiasis) may result from a similar contraction of the edge of the eyelid itself. Severe inflammation, and even blindness, may be the consequence of the latter affection from the friction of the lashes against the globe. Both of these deformities may be remedied by a slight operation. IV. Another class of distortions may arise from external pressure; as of the bones and cartilages of the chest from tight stays; or of the phalanges of the toes from ill-made shoes. Instances of this kind of distortion must be familiar to all and call for no particular explanation or remark. DISTRESS, districtio,' in the jurisprudence of the Middle Ages, denotes legal compulsion generally, whether ecclesiastical or civil. One mode of compulsion extensively adopted among the nations of Teutonic origin was the taking possession of the whole or a part of the property of the offender or defaulter, and withholding it from him until the requirements of the law had been complied with. This species of distress was called naam, from nyman, nehmen, to take-a verb common to the Anglo-Saxon, German, and other cognate languages. The modern distress is the naam,' restricted to the taking of personal chattels; and in its most simple form it may be stated to be-the taking of personal chattels out of the possession of an alleged defaulter or wrong-doer for the purpose of compelling him, through the inconvenience resulting from the withholding of such personal chattels, to perform the act in respect of which he is a defaulter, or to make compensation for the wrong which he has committed. Some rights to which the law annexes the remedy by distress, have been considered as too important to be left to the protection afforded by the mere detention of the distress (by which term the thing taker is also designated), | Another class of judicial distresses is where, upon refusal or omission to pay a sum in which a party is convicted upon a summary proceeding before justices of the peace, such justices are empowered to grant a warrant authorizing and directing the levying of the amount by distress and sale of the goods of the offender. Another species of judicial distress is that awarded and issued upon a judgment recovered in an inferior court, not of record. In these cases the execution or remedy for obtaining payment of the sum recovered is by distress. A precept issues to the officer of the court, commanding him to take the goods of the party, and to impound them until he satisfies the debt. Such process issues at the command of the sheriff or of the lord of the manor, &c., in whose name and by whose authority the courts are holden. So a distress lies, subject to certain restrictions, for fines and amercements imposed in the sheriff's tourn and in a court-leet. [LEET; TOURN.] A penalty inflicted for the breach of a bye-law [BYE LAW] may be levied by distress, in cases where that remedy is appointed at the time of the making of the particular bye-law. But a bye-law establishing a distress cannot authorize the sale of the distress. Another species of judicial distress is a distress taken for poor-rates. [POOR.] In the foregoing cases the right or duty withheld has been ascertained by some judicial determination before a distress can be resorted to. But many payments and duties having their origin in feudal rights, may be enforced by distresses taken by the sole authority of the parties claiming such payments or duties. The rights, of which the vindication is thus in the first instance entrusted to the parties themselves, are connected immediately or mediately with feudal superiority; and it is observable that to feudal superiority, jurisdiction and magisterial authority were always incident. Among the feudal duties which may be enforced by distress, at the mere will of the party claiming to be entitled to such duties, one which though seldom exacted, is still of the most extensive obligation, is fealty. Fealty is a promise confirmed by an oath, to be faithful in the performance of those engagements into which the party doing the fealty (as the act of taking the oath is termed) has expressly or impliedly entered upon becoming tenant to the party re ceiving the fealty. A distress also lies for suit of court, secta ad curiam, or the attendance which freehold tenants owe to their lord's court-baron, or freeholders'-court, and which tenants in villenage or copyholders owe to the lord's customary court; and it is not unusual for lessees for years to covenant to attend the lord's courts, though unless they also fill the situation of freeholders of the manor, they are not qualified to sit as suitors and judges in the court baron; and unless they are copyholders they cannot be sworn upon the homage or jury in the customary court. This suit is sometimes called sultservice, to distinguish it from suit real, which is that suit of court which the resiants, or those who dwell within a hundred or a leet, owe to the sheriff's tourn or to the courtleet. [LEET; SUIT.] A distress lies for suit of mill (secta ad molendinum), an obligation, still existing in some manors, to grind at the lord's mill. So for frankfoldage, or a right in the lord to require his tenants to fold their sheep upon his lands. So, if land be holden by the tenure of repairing a bridge, or a highway, or of doing suit to a leet, or filling some office |