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436 ISRAEL ISSUE 278 public baths, and a population of 000,000. Other authors state the population at upward of 1,000,000. There are said to have been 1,400 villages in the vicinity of the city at the height of its prosperity. But in 1722 it was taken by the Afghans after a siege of eight months, and its buildings were defaced and people massacred in frightful numbers. This catastrophe nearly destroyed the city. The seat of government was removed first to Shi- raz, and afterward to Teheran. Although the traveller rides for miles through deserted streets, ruined buildings, and silent squares, Ispahan is still the most stately and beautiful city of Persia; but the traces of its original splendor are fast disappearing. ISRAEL. See JACOB. ISRAELITES. See HEBREWS. ISRAELS, Josef, a Dutch painter, born in Groningen in 1824. He studied in Amsterdam and Paris, and resides at the Hague. His best known works are " The Tranquil House," in a private collection in Brussels ; " The Ship- wrecked," " The Cradle," and " The Mother," all in London ; " The True Support," in pos- session of the count of Flanders, brother of Leopold II. ; and " The Children of the Sea," in the gallery of the queen of Holland. One of his genre pictures brought 7,150 florins at the public sale of Baron van Reede van Oudts- horn's collection at Amsterdam in 1874. ISSAQCEJfA, a W. county of Mississippi, bound- ed W. by the Mississippi river and S. E. by the Yazoo, which is navigable by steamboats ; area, 720 sq. m. ; pop. in 1870, 6,887, of whom 6,146 were colored. It is drained by Big Sunflower river, Deer creek, and Steel's bayou, and has a low and level surface, portions of which are often inundated. The soil is rich. The chief productions in 1870 were 82,825 bushels of In- dian corn, 5,105 of sweet potatoes, and 15,821 bales of cotton. There were 562 horses, 931 mules and asses, 619 milch cows, 1,559 other cattle, and 1,675 swine. Capital, Tallulah. ISSOIRE, a town of Auvergne, France, in the department of Puy de-D&me, at the conflu- ence of the Crouze and the Allier, 81 m. W. S. "W. of Lyons; pop. in 1866, 6,294. It has a fine church of the llth century, a college, cop- per works, and an active trade. ISSOID1 N . a town of Berry, France, in the department of Indre, on the river Theols and on the railway from Orleans to Limoges, 22 m. S. W. of Bourges; pop. in 1866, 14,261. It contains the ruins of a castle built in the 12th century, and has four churches, a theatre, man- ufactories of cloth and faience, and an impor- tant trade in corn and wine. ISSUE. I. In law, used in deeds and wills to signify descendants. When employed in a deed, the term has a definite meaning. It is al- ways construed to be a word of purchase, des- ignating persons in being, and vesting in each of them an original interest. It cannot be a word of limitation, for that would confer on is- sue, whether in being or not, derivative interests devolved upon them through descent from the original taker ; and such estates of inheritance can be created in deeds only by the word heirs. Wo have used the word purchase in its techni- cal sense. In law, all estates are acquired either by purchase or by descent; and it therefore follows that all estates not acquired by de- scent or by inheritance are acquired by pur- chase. The construction of the word issue in wills has involved much uncertainty and diffi- culty ; for it is a term of the most extensive import. It may embrace all descendants to the remotest degree, or may be limited to imme- diate descendants, or confined to some particu- lar class of descendants living at a given time. Of the rules of construction established by the discussion of this perhaps most vexed question in the whole range of legal learning, it must suffice to state only the most general. In a will, issue may be regarded as a word either of limitation or of purchase. If real estate be de- vised either directly to, or by way of executed trust for, a " person and his issue," the word is here taken to be one of limitation ; and it confers on the devisee an estate tail. Yet if it clearly appear from any expressions in the will that the testator did not intend to give such an estate, or that by issue he meant children, or any particular class of descendants, then the word will be construed as a word of purchase ; and it will then comprise all who can claim as descendants from him to whose issue the be- quest is made. The different phrases which express default of issue have been the subjects of frequent and very nice construction. The failure of issue may be what is called a definite failure, when the will fixes a definite time for such failure, as if the devisee die " without issue living at the time of his death ;" or it may be indefinite, when no period is fixed, but the con- tingency continues so long as the devisee has any descendants. A limitation over after a definite failure of issue is good ; but not upon an indefinite failure, for the contingency is too remote. In the case therefore of a devise to A in fee, with remainder to another upon A's death without issue, the limitation over is void, and A's estate in fee is reduced to an estate tail. This is the general rule of the common law, though in the United States the courts seek to evade its authority, and often avail themselves of slight circumstances to support the execu- tory devise. They have done so when the limi- tation was to the brother of A if the latter died without children; or to "survivors" when either of several devisees should die " without issue alive," or "without lawful issue." In many of the states much of the difficulty is ob- viated by express statutory enactments. The American cases generally follow the English common law rule in regard to limitations over upon the bequest of chattels; and, by confi- ning the expression "without issue" to issue living at the death of the first taker, support executory devises. II. In pleading, the point or matter in contest between the parties to a