Page:William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England (3rd ed, 1768, vol I).djvu/317

 Ch. 8. his own motion, kill as well an infant as an adult, or if a cart run over him, they hall in either cae be forfeited as deodands ; which is grounded upon this additional reaon, that uch misfortunes are in part owing to the negligence of the owner, and therefore he is properly punihed by uch forfeiture. A like punihment is in like caes inflicted by the moaical law : "if an ox gore a man that he die, the ox hall be toned, and his fleh hall not be eaten." And among the Athenians, whatever was the caue of a man's death, by falling upon him, was exterminated or cat out of the dominions of the republic. Where a thing, not in motion, is the occaion of a man's death, that part only which is the immediate caue is forfeited; as if a man be climbing up a wheel, and is killed by falling from it, the wheel alone is a deodand : but, wherever the thing is in motion, not only that part which immediately gives the wound, (as the wheel, which runs over his body) but all things which move with it and help to make the wound more dangerous (as the cart and loading, which increae the preure of the wheel) are forfeited. It matters not whether the owner were concerned in the killing or not, for if a man kills another with my word, the word is forfeited as an accured thing. And therefore, in all indictments for homicide, the intrument of death and the value are preented and found by the grand jury (as, that the troke was given with a certain penknife, value ixpence) that the king or his grantee may claim the deodand: for it is no deodand, unles it be preented as uch by a jury of twelve men. No deodands are due for accidents happening upon the high ea, that being out of the juridiction of the common law: but if a man falls from a boat or Rh