An avalanche is a large mass of snow or ice precipitated from the mountains, and distinguished as wind or dust avalanches, when they consist of fresh-fallen snow whirled like a dust storm into the valleys; as sliding avalanches, when they consist of great masses of snow sliding down a slope by their own weight; and as glacier or summer avalanches, when ice-masses are detached by heat from the high glaciers. Research Avalanche
The word contest has several interpretations within the English language. In popular parlance, a contest is often regarded as a conflict or competition. This may be friendly, such as a sports contest, or more aggressive such as a contention. Another interpretation of contest is in the form of a keen controversy, where one disputes an argument. Thus, one can contest another's statement.
Formerly, during the 17th century, the term contest was used to mean to bear witness, or to confirm or assert with the witness of an oath. Thus to contest was to swear to a fact or statement under oath. But this use had fallen into disuse by the 20th century. Research Contest
Criminal law is the law relating to crimes. The general theory of the common law is, that all wrongs are divisible into two species: first, civil or private wrongs or torts; secondly, criminal or public wrongs. The former are to be redressed by private suits or remedies instituted by the parties injured. The latter are redressed by the state acting in its sovereign capacity.
The general description of the private wrongs is, that they comprehend those injuries which affect the rights and property of the individual, and terminate there; that of public wrongs or offences being, that they comprehend such acts as injure, not merely individuals, but the community at large, by endangering the peace, the comfort, the good order, the policy, and even the existence of society. In the first, therefore, so far as the law is concerned, the compensation of the individual whose rights have been infringed is held to be a sufficient atonement; but in the second class of offences it is demanded that the offender make satisfaction to the community as acting prejudicially to its welfare. The exact boundaries between these classes are not, however, always easy to be discerned, even in theory; for there are few private wrongs which do not exert an influence beyond the individual whom they directly injure. The divisions, torts and crimes, are thus not necessarily mutually exclusive, cases sometimes occurring in which the person injured obtains damages, while at the same time the criminal is subjected to punishment, not as against the individual, but as against the state. It is, moreover, obvious that legal criminality is not in any strict sense the measure of the morality of actions, though the legal enactment tends to enforce itself as a moral law. In large part it is only an approximate expression of the current sense of justice, this expression being both aided and hindered by the historical and constantly reflexive character of legal method.
The basis of the criminal law of Great Britain is to be found in a series of loose definitions and descriptions, of which many, and those among the more important, date from the 13th century. The irregular superstructure reared upon these consists mainly of parliamentary enactments which originated in the 18th century, but have been twice re-enacted in the 19th century - the first time between 1826 and 1832, and the second time in 1861, with an intermediary attempt at amendment in 1837. The laws as formulated, however, by no means always represent the law as interpreted, the whole system being further complicated by a mass of judicial comments and particular constructions. Thus while there is a statutory division of crimes into treasons, felonies, and misdemeanours, the distinctions between them are so uncertain that it is possible to regard the first head as merely the isolation of a sub-case of felony; while in respect of the second and third classes, the distinction can only be clearly marked by an enumeration of the crimes arbitrarily assigned to each in the common law and judges' decisions.
Even in severity of punishment a misdemeanour may rank as high as a felony. The Criminal Statutes Consolidation Acts - the result of a series of commissions extending over thirty years - accomplished little more in the way of systematization than the introduction of greater exactitude into the definition of certain individual offences and the gradation of penalties. The aim of criminal law as at present constituted, and since the end of the 19th century, is both retributive and preventive - in its former aspect being based upon the primitive passion of retaliation, in the latter primarily upon the fundamental instinct of self-preservation. The prevention of crime may, however, be effected in a threefold manner: by imposing a penalty which shall operate by fear to deter people from committing crimes, or by rendering it physically impossible for a person of known criminal tendency to repeat an offence, or by the reformation of the criminal. With the higher evolution of society the principle of retaliation has fallen into theoretic disrepute, though still a practical legal factor; and the problems of penology are made to turn almost exclusively upon the principle of prevention in these three aspects, and especially on the two last. The discovery in the 19th century that fear of a penalty only operated up to a certain point, beyond which an excessive punishment exercised a brutalizing tendency, led to a large mitigation of penal severity accompanied by a wide desire for the abolition of capital punishment, though this took almost one hundred years to be realised in Great Britain; while, on the other hand, various schemes have been devised for making punishment reformatory. These original changes in criminal law date in a large measure from the publication of Beccaria's Dei Delitti e delle Pene (On Offences and Penalties) in 1764. Research Criminal Law
Femgerichte (Fehmgerichte or Vehmgerichte) were criminal courts of Germany in the middle ages, which took the place of the regular administration of justice (then fallen into decay), especially in criminal cases. These courts originated and had their chief jurisdiction in Westphalia, and their proceedings were conducted with the most profound secrecy. They seem to have been a survival of old territorial jurisdictions which, on the general distraction and lawlessness prevalent after the fall of Henry the Lion in 1182, acquired an extensive and tremendous authority. In process of time, however, they degenerated, and no longer confined themselves to law and precedent, so that the secrecy in which they enveloped themselves only served as a cloak to their criminal purposes.
The flagrant abuse of their power brought about their fall. In 1461 various princes and cities of Germany, as well as the Swiss confederates, united in a league against them, but their influence was not entirely destroyed until an amended form of trial and penal judicature was introduced. The last Femgericht was held at Zeil in 1568.
The president of the secret tribunal was called the Freigraf, and was generally a prince or count. His associates, who concurred in and executed the sentence, were called Freischoffen. These were scattered through all the provinces of Germany, and recognized one another by certain signs and watchwords. They acknowledged the emperor as their superior, and for this reason generally made him one of their number at his coronation at Aix-la-Chapelle. The assemblies of the tribunal were open or secret. The former were held by day in the open air; the latter by night, in a forest or in concealed and subterranean places. In these different cases the circumstances of judgment and the process of trial were different. The crimes of which the secret tribunal usurped cognizance were heresy, sorcery, rape, theft, robbery, and murder.
The accusation was made by one of the Freischoffen, who, without further proof, declared upon oath that the accused had committed the crime. The accused was now thrice summoned to appear before the secret tribunal, and the citation was secretly affixed to the door of his dwelling or some neighbouring place; the accuser remained unknown. If, after the third summons, the accused did not appear, he was once more cited in a solemn session of the court, and if still contumacious, was given over to the Freischoffen. The first Freischoffe who met him was bound to execute the decree of the court. A dagger was left by the corpse to show that it was not a murder, but a punishment inflicted by one of the Freischoifen. How many judicial murders were perpetrated in this manner from revenge, interested motives, or malice, may well be imagined. Research Femgerichte
The peruke riot was the name given to a disturbance that occurred in London on the 11th of February, 1765. The wig or peruke as it was then called having fallen from fashion the wig makers or perukiers as they were then called, worried about their livelihood, raised a petition and marched on the king with it demanding that gentlefolk should be forced by law to wear a wig. However, the general population seeing that a large proportion of the wig makers were themselves not wearing a wig, became angry and attacked the procession forcibly cutting off the hair of many of the marchers. Research Peruke Riot
A toret was a ring for fastening a hawk's leash to the jesses. The term was also applied to a ring affixed to the collar of a dog, etc. Although mentioned by Chaucer, the term has fallen into disuse. Research Toret
University is the name given to a national institution for advanced teaching and study, recognized for that purpose by a charter from the state. A university is empowered by its charter to confer degrees upon its students, after they have conformed to the regulations laid down in the statutes. These regulations determine the conditions of length of residence, attendance on lectures, and the requisite examinations to be passed, precedent to the conferment of degrees.
Most universities are teaching universities, i.e. they contain a staff of teachers, styled professors, lecturers or readers, appointed each for the teaching of a special subject, to give instruction, and to direct the studies of students. Such students as are admitted to the university have had to qualify by passing an entrance examination, and are then said to be matriculated. From the time of matriculation to that of taking the degree, the student is called an undergraduate, and after conferment of the degree, a graduate. Degrees are of different grades, usually bachelor, master, and doctor. They can be taken in various groups of subjects, known as faculties. In the modern university examinations complete the courses of study followed under the instruction and direction of professors.
Historically, it is to be noted that the original term for a university was studium generate, which means a place in which were established facilities for teaching and learning, open to all comers, and not restricted to a special community of a town, or of a monastery. Thus, to the medieval universities of Italy, and to that of Paris, students went from various European countries, and found it convenient to group themselves into nations, according to the country or province from which they came. Thus, a studium generale contained many associations or groups, not altogether without analogy to trade and craft guilds.
It was in the latter part of the 14th century that universitas came to be used in the sense of a university. In other words, the first use of universitas was for voluntary groups, and only developed gradually into the idea of the whole institution, as recognized by the emperor or the pope, when its position was guaranteed by an imperial charter or papal bull. This seal of authority not only gave unity to the community of teachers and scholars as a whole, but also became a symbol of the unity of the whole learned world, because universities thus chartered were alone enabled to confer on their graduates degrees (certifying studies and training in teaching) which carried with them the right of teaching not only in their own university or their own country, but also in any studium generate.
This right was particularly valuable in the spread of knowledge, because medieval teachers and scholars communicated everywhere, both orally and by writing, through the medium of the Latin language and not through the vernacular. They naturally valued highly the facility of moving about from university to university at home and abroad. Roughly speaking, this use of Latin, as the language of teaching and learning, broke up with the decline of the Renaissance. We may date the beginning of the downfall of the Latin language for England with the Restoration of 1660. Not only has Latin fallen entirely out of use as a spoken language, but in some modern universities movements have arisen to minimise the study of ancient languages for degrees, if not to remove them as necessary subjects for all degrees. The modern civic universities are inclined to lay great stress on the subjects underlying the special industries of their localities. Hence, in some ways and to some extent there has been a reversal of the old idea that the university developed in the student a power of entering into the knowledge and learning common to all the universities.
On the other hand the since the Great War universities have laid more and more stress on the 'university spirit'. This means a constant watchfulness to aid and promote the advancement of learning and discovery of knowledge, to provide the stimulus of intellectual inquiry in every subject, and to raise the tone and level in all professional training. Particularly, it aims at encouraging in teachers and in taught a right and effective attitude towards methods of research. Research University
Agathidium is a genus of beetles of the family Leiodidae. They have a pronotum with completely rounded posterior corners and are more or less able to roll themselves into a ball. They generally live on wood and in mouldy fallen leaves, sometimes in mushrooms. Research Agathidium
Anthracus is an alternative genus for Acupalpus consputus, a small (three to five millimetres in length) beetle of the ground beetle family, Carabidae. They live in shaded places beside water, often under fallen leaves and hibernate before mating in the spring. Research Anthracus
The Probert Encyclopaedia was designed, edited and programed by
Matt and Leela Probert
Abbreviations
Research Avalanche
