Blacks Law Dict. 1st ed

42

ADOPT

ADULTER

ity. It commences for males at 14, and for fe males at 12 years completed, and continues till 21 years complete. ADOPT. To accept, appropriate, choose, or select; to make that one's own (property or act) which was not so originally; to take another's child and give him the rights and duties of one's own. To adopt a route for the transportation of the mail means to take the steps necessary to cause the mail to be transported over that route. Dev. Ct. 01. 47. To adopt a contract is to accept it as bind ing, notwithstanding some defect which en titles the party to repudiate it. Thus, when a person affirms a voidable contract, or rati fies a contract made by his agent beyond his authority, he is said to adopt it. Sweet. ADOPTION. The act of one who takes another's child into his own family, treating him as his own, and giving him all the rights and duties of his own child. A juridical act creating between two per sons certain relations, purely civil, of pater nity and filiation. 6 Demol. § 1. ADOPTIVE ACT. An act of parliament which comes into operation within a limited area upon being adopted, in manner pre scribed therein, by the inhabitants of that area. ADOPTIVUS. Lat. Adoptive. Applied both to the parent adopting, and the child adopted. Inst. 2, 13, 4; Id. 3, 1,10-14. ADPROMISSOR. In the civil and Scotch law. A guarantor, surety, or cautioner; a peculiar species of fidejussor; one who adds his own promise to the promise given by the principal debtor, whence the name. ADQUIETO. Payment. Blount. ADRECTARE. To do right, satisfy, or make amends. ADRHAMIRE. In old European law. To undertake, declare, or promise solemnly; to pledge; to pledge one's self to make oath. Spelman. ADRIFT. Sea-weed, between high and low water-mark, which has not been deposit ed on the shore, and which during flood-tide is moved by each rising and receding wave, is adrift, although the bottom of the mass may touch the beach. 2 Allen, 549. ADROGATION. In the civil law. The adoption of one who was impubea; that is,

if a male, under fourteen years of age; if a female, under twelve. Dig. 1, 7, 17, 1. ADSCENDENTES. Lat. In the civil law. Ascendants. Dig. 23, 2, 68; Cod. 5, 5,6. ADSCRIPTI GLEB-ffi!. Slaves who served the master of the soil, who were an nexed to the land, and passed with it when it was conveyed. Calvin. In Scotland, as late as the reign of George m., laborers in collieries and salt works were bound to the coal-pit or salt work in which they were en gaged, in a manner similar to that of the odscripU of the Romans. BelL ADSCRIPTUS. In the civil law. Add ed, annexed, or bound by or in writing; en rolled, registered; united, joined, annexed, bound to, generally. Servus colonce adscrip tus, a slave annexed to an estate as a culti vator. Dig. 19, 2, 54, 2. Fundus adscrip tus, an estate bound to, or burdened with a duty. Cod. 11, 2, 3. ADSESSORES. Side judges. Assist ants or advisers of the regular magistrates, or appointed as their substitutes in certain cases. Calvin. ADSTIPULATOR. In Roman law. An accessory party to a promise, who received the same promise as his principal did, and could equally receive and exact payment; or he only stipulated for a part of that for which the principal stipulated, and then his rights were co-extensive with the amount of his own stipulation. Sandars, Just. Inst. (5th Ed.) 348. ADULT. In the civil law. A male in fant who has attained the age of fourteen; a female infant who has attained the age of twelve. Dom. Iiv. Prel. tit. 2, § 2, n. 8. In the common law. One of the full age of twenty-one. Swanst. Ch. 533. "The authorities all agree, so far as we are ad vised, that at common law the word ' adult' signi fies a person who has attained the full age of 21 years. The word ' adult' seems to have a well-de fined meaning, both in law and in common accepta tion. Mr. Bouvier defines the meaning of the word in the civil law, with which we have no present concern, and says: • In the common law an adult is considered one of full age.' Mr. Wharton do fines the word as signifying ' a person of full age.' Mr. Webster gives as one of the meanings * one who has reached the years of manhood,' " 10 Tex. App. 411; 11 Tex. App. 95. ADULTER. Lat. One who corrupts, one who seduces another man's wife. Adul ter solidorum. A corruptor of metals; a counterfeiter. Calvin.

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