reasonable time after receiving correct information as to the loss; any unnecessary delay being held as an indication of his intention not to abandon. An abandonment when once accepted is irrevocable; but in no circumstances is the insured obliged to abandon. After abandonment, the captain and crew are still bound to do all in their power to save the property for the underwriter, without prejudice to the right of abandonment; for which they are entitled to wages and remuneration from the insurers, at [east so far as what is saved will allow. See Arnould, Marshall, and Park, on the Law of Insurance, and the judgment of Lord Abinger in Roux v. Salvador, 3 Bing. N.C. 266, Tudor's Leading Cases, 139.
Abandonment has also a legal signification in the law of railways. Under the Acts 13 and 14 Vict. c. 83, 14 and 15 Vict. c. 64, 30 and 31 Vict. c. 126, and 32 and 33 Vict. c. 114, the Board of Trade may, on the application of a railway company, made by the authority and with the consent of the holders of three-fifths of its shares or stock, and on certain conditions specified in the Acts, grant a warrant authorising the abandonment of the railway or a portion of it. After due publication of this warrant, the company is released from all liability to make, maintain, or work the railway, or portion of the railway, authorised to be abandoned, or to complete any contracts relating to it, subject to certain provisions and exceptions.
Abandoning a young child under two years of age, so that its life shall be endangered, or its health permanently injured, or likely to be so, is in England a misdemeanour, punishable by penal servitude or imprisonment, 24 and 25 Vict. c. 100, 273. In Scotland abandoning or exposing an infant is an offence at common law, although no evil consequences should happen to the child.
ABANO, a town of Northern Italy, 6 miles S.W. of Padua. There are thermal springs in the -neighbourhood, which have been much resorted to by invalids for bathing, both in ancient and modern times. They were called by the Romans Aponi Fons, and also Aquæ Patavinæ. Population of Abano, 3000.
ABANO, Pietro D', known also as Petrus de Apono or Aponensis, a distinguished physician and philosopher, was born at the Italian town from which he takes his name in 1250, or, according to others, in 1246. After visiting the east in order to acquire the Greek language, he went to study at Paris, where he became a doctor of medicine and philosophy. In Padua, to which he returned when his studies were completed, he speedily gained a great reputation as a physician, and availed himself of it to gratify his avarice by refusing to visit patients except for an exorbitant fee. Perhaps this as well as his meddling with astrology caused the charge to be brought against him of practising magic, the particular accusations being that he brought back into his purse, by the aid of the devil, all the money he paid away, and that he possessed the philosopher's stone. He was twice brought to trial by the Inquisition; on the first occasion he was acquitted, and he died (1316) before the second trial was completed. He was found guilty, however, and his body was ordered to be exhumed and burned; but a friend had secretly removed it, and the Inquisition had, therefore, to content itself with the public proclamation of its sentence and the burning of Abano in effigy. In his writings he expounds and advocates the medical and philosophical systems of Averrhoes and other Arabian writers. His best known works are the Conciliator dijferentiarum quce inter philosophos et medicos versantur (Mantua, 1472, Venice, 1476), and De veneni eorumque remediis (1472), of which a French translation was published at Lyons in 1593.
ABARIS, the Hyperborean, a celebrated sage of antiquity, who visited Greece about 570 B.C., or, according to others, a century or two earlier. The particulars of his history are differently related by different authors, but all accounts are more or less mythical. He is said to have travelled over sea and land, riding on an arrow given him by Apollo, to have lived without food, to have delivered the whole earth from a plague, &c. Various works in prose and verse are attributed to Abaris by Suidas and others, but of these we have no certain information.
ABATEMENT, Abate, from the French abattre, abater, to throw down, demolish. The original meaning of the word is preserved in various legal phrases. The abatement of a nuisance is the remedy allowed by law to a person injured by a public nuisance of destroying or removing it by his own act, provided he commit no breach of the peace in doing so. In the case of private nuisances abatement is also allowed, provided there be no breach of the peace, and no damage be occasioned beyond what the removal of the nuisance requires.
Abatement of freehold takes place where, after the death of the person last seised, a stranger enters upon lands before the entry of the heir or devisee, and keeps the latter out of possession. It differs from intrusion, which is a similar entry by a stranger on the death of a tenant for life, to the prejudice of the reversioner, or remainder man; and from disseisin, which is the forcible or fraudulent expulsion of a person seised of the freehold.
Abatement among legatees (defalcatis) is a proportionate deduction which their legacies suffer when the funds out of which they are payable are not sufficient to pay them in full.
Abatement in pleading is the defeating or quashing of a particular action by some matter of fact, such as a defect in form or personal incompetency of the parties suing, pleaded by the defendant. Such a plea is called a plea in abatement; and as it does not involve the merits of the cause, it leaves the right of action subsisting. Since 1852 it has been competent to obviate the effect of such pleas by amendment, so as to allow the real question in controversy between the parties to be tried in the same suit.
In litigation an action is said to abate or cease on the death of one of the parties.
Abatement, or Rebate, is a discount allowed for prompt payment; it also means a deduction sometimes made at the custom-house from the fixed duties on certain kinds of goods, on account of damage or loss sustained in warehouses. The rate and conditions of such deductions are regulated by Act 16 and 17 Vict. c. 107.
ABATI, or Dell'Abbato, Niccolo, a celebrated fresco-painter of Modena, born in 1512. His best works are at Modena and Bologna, and have been highly praised by Zanotti, Algarotti, and Lanzi. He accompanied Primaticcio to France, and assisted in decorating the palace at Fontainbleau (1552-1571). His pictures exhibit a combination of skill in drawing, grace, and natural colouring. Some of his easel pieces in oil are in different collections; one of the finest, now in the Dresden Gallery, represents the martyrdom of St Peter and St Paul. Abati died at Paris in 1571.
ABATTOIR, from abattre, primarily signifies a slaughter house proper, or place where animals are killed as distinguished from boucheries and étaux publics, places where the dead meat is offered for sale. But the term is also employed to designate a complete meat market, of which the abattoir proper is merely part.
Perhaps the first indication of the existence of abattoirs may be found in the system which prevailed under the Emperors in ancient Rome. A corporation or guild of butchers undoubtedly existed there, which delegated to its officers the duty of slaughtering the beasts required to supply the city with meat. The establishments requisite
