Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume VII.djvu/620

 608 GAME LAWS GAMING BIA M GAMBO GE. CONSTITUENTS. Pipe. Cake or lump. Coarse. GAMBOGE. Kesin 72-5 64'7 48'2 71-2 Soluble gum "Woody fibre 22-7 trace. 20-3 5'3 15-2 13-8 19-9 5-7 Fecula 5-6 14-5 Moisture 4-8 4'1 8'8 3-2 Total 100 -0 100 -0 100 -0 100.0 The resinous portion is obtained by evapo- rating the ethereal tincture. It has a deep orange color, and gives a yellow tint to 10,000 times its weight of alcohol. It is entirely insol- uble in water. Johnston named it gambogic acid, and gave its composition C4oH 2 QO 9 . This is said to be an active purgative in the dose of 5 grains, without the drastic and nauseating character of the gum resin. Gamboge is em- ployed as a water color, and also as a medi- cine. In large doses it is an acrid poison, a single drachm having produced death. It is best used in combination with other and mild- er cathartics, and is then found an excellent remedy for obstinate constipation. It is also employed in the treatment of apoplexy and dropsy. It is so rarely used except in combi- nations that its medicinal action is practically confined to these combinations. GAME LAWS, statutes which declare what birds and beasts are to be considered game, and impose penalties on those who unlawfully kill or destroy them. The game laws of Eng- land had their origin in the ancient forest laws, under which the killing of one of the king's deer was equally penal with murdering one of his subjects. From the Norman conquest to the present day game has constantly been a subject of legislation in England. In 1389 the possession of property was made a specific qualification for the privilege of killing game, and it was enacted that "no manner of arti- ficer, laborer, nor any other layman who hath not lands and tenements to the value of 40 shillings by the year, nor any priest nor other clerk if he be not advanced to the value of 10 pounds by the year," should keep hunting dogs, or use other methods of killing game, upon pain of one year's imprisonment. In 1605 the qualification to kill game was increased to 40 a year in land and 200 in personal property. In 1670 the qualification was limited to persons who had a freehold estate of 100 per annum, or a leasehold for 99 years of 150 annual value. Persons who had not these qualifica- tions were not allowed to have or keep game dogs. In 1785 an act was passed requiring persons qualified to kill game to take out a certificate to that effect. The property quali- fication was abolished in 1831, and the certifi- cate itself, which cost 3 13s. 6d. annually, was made a qualification. By statute 23 and 24 Victoria (1860-'61), c. 90, the certificate is abolished, and an excise tax substituted, which is 3 or 2, according to the portion of the year for which the privilege is desired. There are many restrictions upon the right which the payment of the tax gives to kill game. It must not be killed on Sunday, nor on Christmas, nor at the season of the year when the pursuit of each kind is prohibited. Poachers and unauthorized persons who de- stroy game by night are severely punished. No one may trespass on the land of another in pursuit of game, and the unlawful pursuit and killing or wounding of deer kept in enclosed land is felony, punishable with two years' im- prisonment. Lords of manors are authorized to appoint gamekeepers to preserve or kill game within the manors. Gamekeepers are authorized to arrest poachers, and to seize all dogs, nets, and other implements used for kill- ing game by unlicensed persons. The sale of game in England is also subject to strict regu* lations. In the United States, laws have been enacted by several of the states to protect game from pursuit during certain seasons in order to prevent its entire destruction. But apart from these restrictions, any person who chooses is at liberty to kill or capture as best he can any wild animal, bird, or fish, anywhere in the United States, subject to the usual law against trespassing on the grounds of others. GAMING, the playing together of two or more persons at some game, whereby one shall lose and the other win money or other property staked upon the issue. The game may be one of chance, as that of faro or a game with dice, or one of skill only, as chess, or of skill and chance together, as whist or backgammon. There is nothing immoral in playing for mere amusement; but if money be staked, it be- comes easily, and perhaps necessarily, a sport carried on for the sake of the money in a greater or less degree, and then most moral- ists have agreed that it deserves reprobation. When this is carried to an extreme degree, and important sums are played for, it is obviously wrong, and deemed so to be universally. But the common law never interfered with gaming, by any kind of prohibition or restraint, so long as there was no fraud. If there was fraud, it operated here as it does elsewhere in law ; it avoided all contracts, and money paid in fraud could be recovered back, because no title passed to the payee. And if one cheated at gaining, as by false cards, dice, or other implements, or indeed in any way, he might be indicted as a cheat at common law. Both in England and in the various states of the Union, statutes have been passed for the prohibition or re- straining of gaming, or, as it is as commonly called, gambling. Here, all gambling, that is, all playing for money, is prohibited, and there- fore it is held that one cannot recover back money lost at play, because the playing itself is illegal ; and it makes no difference whether the playing was honest or cheating. But a loser may recover his money from a stake- holder, by demanding it from him before he pays it over to the winner. It has been held in