Chapter the fifteenth.
Of the Offences against the Persons of Individuals.
Having in the preceding chapter conſidered the principal crime, or public wrong, that can be committed againſt a private ſubject, namely, by deſtroying his life; I proceed now to enquire into ſuch other crimes and miſdemeſnors, as more peculiarly affect the ſecurity of his perſon, while living.
Of theſe ſome are felonious, and in their nature capital; others are ſimple miſdemeſnors, and puniſhable with a lighter animadverſion. Of the felonies the firſt is that of mayhem.
I. Mayhem, mahemium, was in part conſidered in the preceding volume[1] as a civil injury: but it is alſo looked upon in a criminal light by the law; being an atrocious breach of the king's peace, and an offence tending to deprive him of the aid and aſſiſtance of his ſubjects. For mayhem is properly defined to be, as we may remember, the violently depriving another of the uſe of ſuch of his members, as may render him the leſs able in fighting, either to defend himſelf, or to annoy his adverſary[2]. And therefore the cutting off, or diſabling, or weakening a man's
