POUND (I) An enclosure in which cattle or other animals are retained until redeemed by the owners, or when taken in dis traint until replevied, such retention being in the nature of a pledge or security to compel satisfaction for debt or damage done. Animals may be seized or impounded when (a) distrained for rent ; (b) damage feasant, i.e., doing harm on the land of the person seizing; (c) straying; (d) taken under legal process. The pound-keeper is obliged to receive everything offered to his cus tody and is not answerable if the thing offered be illegally impounded.
Where cattle are impounded the impounder must supply suffi cient food and water (Cruelty to Animals Acts, 1849 and any person, moreover, is authorized to enter a place where animals are impounded without food and water more than 12 hours and supply them; and the cost of such food is to be paid by the owner of the animal before it is removed. Pounds are almost obsolete. (See DISTRESS REPLEVIN.) POUND (2)—(a) a measure of weight ; (b) an English money of account. (a) The English standard unit of weight is the avoirdupois pound of 7,000 grains. The earliest weight in the English system was the Saxon pound, subsequently known as the Tower pound, from the old mint pound kept in the Tower of London. The Tower pound weighed 5,400 grains and this weight of silver was coined into 240 pence or 20 shillings, hence pound in sense (2) (a pound weight, of silver). The pound troy, probably introduced from France, was in use as early as 1415 and was adopted as the legal standard for gold and silver in 1527. The act which abolished the Tower pound (18 Hen. VIII.: the "pounde Troye which exceedeth the pounde Tower in weight iii. quarters of the oz.") substituted a pound of 5,76o grains, at which the pound troy still remains. There was in use together with the pound troy, the merchant's pound, weighing 6,75o grains, which was established about 1270 for all commodities except gold, silver and medicines, but it was generally superseded by the pound avoirdu pois about 1330. There was also in use for a short time another
merchant's pound, introduced from France and Germany; this pound weighed 7,200 grains. The pound avoirdupois has remained in use continuously since the 14th century, although it may have varied slightly at different periods—the Elizabethan standard was probably 7,200 grains. The standard pound troy, placed together with the standard yard in the custody of the clerk of the House of Commons by a resolution of the House of the 2nd of June 1758, was destroyed at the burning of the houses of parliament in 1834. In 1838 a commission was appointed to consider the restoration of the standards, and in consequence of their report in 1841 the pound avoirdupois of 7,000 grains was substituted for the pound troy as the standard. A new standard pound avoirdupois was made under the direction of a committee appointed in 1834 (which re ported in 1854), by comparison with authenticated copies of the original standard (see Phil. Trans. 1856). This standard pound was legalized by an act of 1855 (18 & 19 Vict. c. 72). The stand ard avoirdupois pound is made of platinum, in the form of a cylinder nearly 1.35 in. high and 1.15 in. in diameter. It has a groove or channel round it to enable it to be lifted by means of an ivory fork (for illustration see MEASURES AND WEIGHTS) and is marked "P.S. 1844. I lb." P.S. meaning Parliamentary Stand ard. It is preserved at the Standards Office, in the custody of the Board of Trade. Copies were also deposited at the Houses of Parliament, the Royal Mint, the Royal Observatory and with the Royal Society.
See the Reports of the Standards Commission (6 parts, 1868-73).