PROVOST
or actions on the part or one person towards another as tend to arouse rage, resentment, or fury in the latter against the former, and thereby cause him to do some illegal act against or in relation to the person offering the provocation. See State v. Byrd, 52 S. C. 480, 30 S. E. 482; Ruble v. People, 67 ill. App. 438.
PROVOST. The principal magistrate of a royal burgh in Scotland; also a governing officer of a university or college.
PROVOST-MARSHAL. In English law. An officer of the royal navy who had the charge of prisoners taken at sea, and some times also on land. In military law, the ot- flcer acting as the head of the military police of any post, camp, city or other place in military occupation, or district under the reign of martial law.
PROXENETA. Lat. In the civil law. A broker; one who negotiated or arranged the terms of a contract between two parties, as between buyer and seller; one who negotiated a marriage; I1 match-maker. Calvin.
PROXXMATE. Immediate; nearest; next in order.
—Pr-oximate cause. The proximate cause is the efliciont cause, the one that necessarily set the other causes in operation. The causes that are merely incidental or instruments of a su- perior or controlling agency are not the proximate causes and the responsible ones though they may be nearer in time to the result It is only when the causes are independent of each other that the nearest is, of course, to be charg- ed with the disaster. See Blythe Y. Railway Co., 15 Colo. 333. 25 Pac. 702, 11 L. It A. 615, 22 Am. St. Rep. 403; Pie lie v. Railroad 00., 5 Dal-I. 4-14, 41 N. W. ' ; Railroad Co. V. Keiiy, 91 Tenn. 690, % S. W. 312, 17 L. R. A. 691. 30 Am. St. Rep. 902: Gunter v. Granite- vilie liifg. Co.. 15 S. C. 443; Dosqui v. Rail- road Co., 131 Cal. 390, 63 Pac. (582; [Etna Ins. Co. v. Boon, 95 U. S. 117, 24 L. Ed. 395; Vi/ills v. Railway Co.. 108 Wis. 255, 84 N. W. 998; Davis v. Standish, 26 Iliiu (N. Y.) 615. See, also, Imiisiinrrr. (CAUSE.)—Proximnte dam- ages. See Daimons.
PROXIMITY. Kindred between two persons. Dig. 38, 16, S.
Pr-oximns est uni nemo antecedit, nu- premns est qnem nemo seqnitnr. He is next whom no one precedes; he is last whom no one follows. Dig. 50, 16, 92.
PROXY. A person who is suhstltuted or deputed by another to represent him and act for hlrn. particularly in some meeting or pub- lic body. Also the instrument containing Lhe appointment of such person. The word is said to be contracted from "procuiacy." (q. 12.)
One who is appointed or dv.-putcil by another to vote for him. Members of the house of lords in Digland have the privilege of voting by proxy. 1 Bl. Comm 168.
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PTOMAINES
In ecclesiastical law. A person who is appointed to manage another man's affairs In the ecclesiastical courts; a proctor.
Also an annual payment made by the parochial clergy to the bishop, on Visitations. Tonilins.
PRUDENCE. Garefulness, precaution, attentiveness, and good judgment, as applied to action or conducL That degree of care required by the exigencies or circumstances under which it is to be exercised. Uronli V. Railway 00., 3 S. D. 93, 52 N. W. 420. This term, in the language of the law, is commonly associated with "care" and "diligence" and contrasted with "negligence." See those tities.
P1-ndentar .a.g-it qni pr-iecepto legia ub- temperat. 5 Cake, 49. He acts prudently who obeys the command of the law.
PRYK. A kind or service of tenure. Blount says it signifies an old—t‘ashioned spur with one point only, which the tenant, holding land by this tenure, was to hnd for the king. Wharton.
PSEUDOCYESIS. In medical jurispru- dence. A frequent manifestation of hysteria in women, in which the abdomen is inflated, simulating pregnancy; the patient aiding in the deception.
PSYCHO-DIAGNOSIS. In medical ju- risprudence A method of investigating the origin and cause of any given disease or mor- bid condition by examination of the mental condition of the patient, the application of Various psychological tests, nnd an inquiry into the past history of the patient, with a View to its bearing on his present psychic state.
PSYCHOLOGICAL FACT. In the law of evidence. A fact which can only he per- C€l\ ed mentally; such as the motive by which a person is actuated. Burriil, Circ. Ev. 130, 131.
PSYCHOTHERAPY. A method or system of alieviating or curing certain forms of disease, particularly diseases of the nervous system or such IIS are traceable to nervous disorders, by sugestlun, persuasion, encour- agement, the inspiration of hope or confi- dence, the discouragement of morbid mem- ories, nssociations, or beliefs, and other similar means addressed to the mental state of the patient, without (or sometimes in con- junction with) the administration of drugs or other physical remedies.
PTOMAINES. in medical jurlsmiiilence. A_lii3l0i(li1l products of the decoinposition or putrefaction of albuniiiious substances, as, in animal and vegetabie tissues. These are sometimes poisonous, but not invariably. Ex- amples of poisonous ptomaines are those oc-
