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Rh willfully and with an intention of causing perpetual separation. Gay v. State, 105 Ga. 599, 31 S. E. 569, 70 Am. St. Rep. 68; People v. Cullen. 153 N. Y. 629, 47 N. E. 894, 44 L. R. A. 420.

"Abandonment, in the sense in which it is used in the statute under which this proceeding was commenced, may be defined to be the art of willfully leaving the wife, with the intention of causing a palpable separation between the parties, and implies an actual desertion of the wife by the husband." Stanbrough v. Stanbrough, 60 Ind. 279.

In French law. The act by which a debtor surrenders his property for the benefit of his creditors. Merl. Repert. "Abandonment."

In the civil law. The act of a person who was sued in a noxal action, i. e., for a tort or trespass committed by his slave or his animal, in relinquishing and abandoning the slave or animal to the person injured, whereby he saved himself from any further responsibility. See Inst. 4, 8, 9; Fitzgerald v. Ferguson, 11 La. Ann. 396.

Anything sequestered, proscribed, or abandoned. Abandon, i. e., in bannum res missa, a thing banned or denounced as forfeited or lost, whence to abandon, desert, or forsake, as lost and gone. Cowell.

Lat. To detect or discover, and disclose to a magistrate, any secret crime. Leges Canuti, cap. 10.

L. Lat. In old English law. An abatement of freehold: an entry upon lands by way of interposition between the death of the ancestor and the entry of the heir. Co. Litt. 277a; Yel. 131.

In pleading. The effect produced upon an action at law, when the defendant pleads matter of fact showing the writ or declaration to be defective and incorrect. This defeats the action for the time being, but the plaintiff may proceed with it after the defect is removed, or may recommence it in a better way. In England, in equity pleading, declinatory pleas to the jurisdiction and dilatory to the persons were (prior to the judicature act) sometimes, by analogy to common law, termed "pleas in abatement."

In chancery practice. The determination, cessation, or suspension of all proceedings in a suit, from the want of proper parties capable of proceeding therein, as upon the death of one of the parties pending the suit. See 2 Tidd, Pr. 932; Story, Eq. P. § 354; Witt v. Ellis. 2 Col. (Tenn.) 38.

In mercantile law. A drawback or rebate allowed in certain cases on the duties due on imported goods, in consideration of their deterioration or damage suffered during importation, or while in store. A diminution or decrease in the amount of tax imposed upon any person.

In contracts. A reduction made by the creditor for the prompt payment of a debt due by the payor or debtor. Wesk. Ins. 7.

Of legacies and debts. A proportional diminution or reduction of the pecuniary legacies, when the funds or assets out of which such legacies are payable are not sufficient to pay them in full. Ward, Leg. p. 369, c. 6, § 7; 1 Story, Eq. Jur. § 555; 2 Bl. Comm. 512, 513; Brown v. Brown, 79 Va. 648; Neistrath's Estate, 66 Cal 330, 5 Pac. 507. In equity, when equitable assets are insufficient to satisfy fully all the creditors, their debts must abate in proportion, and they must be content with a dividend; for æquitas eat quasi æquelitas.

The removal, prostration, or destruction of that which causes a nuisance, whether by breaking or pulling it down, or otherwise removing, disintegrating, or effacing it. Ruff v. Phillips, 50 Ga. 130.

The remedy which the law allows a party injured by a nuisance of destroying or removing it by his own act, so as he commits no riot in doing it, nor occasions (in the case of a private nuisance) any damage beyond what the removal of the inconvenience necessarily requires. 3 Bl. Comm. 5, 168; 3 Steph. Comm. 361; 2 Salk. 458.

This takes place where a person dies seised of an inheritance, and, before the heir or devisee enters, a stranger, having no right makes a wrongful entry, and gets possession of it. Such an entry is technically called an "abatement," and the stranger on "abator." It is, in fact, a figurative expression, denoting that the rightful possession or freehold of the heir or devisee is overthrown by the unlawful intervention of a stranger. Abatement differs from intrusion, in that it is always to the prejudice of the heir or immediate devisee, whereas the latter is to the prejudice of the reversioner or remainder-man; and disseisin differs from them both, for to disseise is to put forcibly or fraudulently a person seised of the freehold out of possession. 1 Co Inst. 277a; 3 Bl. Comm. 166; Brown v. Burdick. 25 Ohio St. 268. By the ancient laws of Normandy, this term was used to signify the act of one who, having an apparent right of possession to an estate, took possession of it immediately after the death of the actual possessor, before the heir entered. (Howard, Anciennes Lois des Français, tome 1, p. 539.) Bouvier.

In real property law, a stranger who, having no right of entry, contrives to get possession of an estate of freehold, to the prejudice of the heir or devisee, before