DEATH-BED, LAW OF, IN SCOTLAND. As the law. stood till recently, if any man, whilst suffering from the disease of which he ultimately died, burdened or conveyed away his heritable estate, to the prejudice of his lawful heir, he was presumed to have so acted in consequence of his inability to resist importunity in the state of feebleness to which he was reduced, and his heir was entitled to reduce the deed. This rule belonged to the most ancient consuetudinary law of Scotland. As lord Stair suggests (1, 12, 34, and 4, 20, 38), it probably was intended as a protectiOn to the dying and their lawful heirs against the notorious propensities of the priesthood; and was thus referable to the same principle as the prohibition to convey heritage by will. Two tests were fixed upon by the law as establishing the existence of that degree of vigor which is technically called liege poustie (supposed to be a corruption for legitima potestate)—viz.,
.survivance for 60 days, and going unsupported to kirk or market, and conducting him self in the ordinary manner. It was decided that it is of no consequence though the object of the visit were neither to worship nor to buy and sell, but simply to evade the law of death-bed. If the individual was in a condition to take part in the service of the church, or in the trade of the market, that was suillcient. Extreme old arc, accom panied by manifest indications of the approach of death, were held equivalent to disease. But the deed of the oldest or most infirm man, or of the man who was labor ing under the most mortal sickness, was not reducible, if another disease had super vened, of which he died, or if he were killed by accident. Reductions ex capite lecti, i.e., on the ground of death-bed, were abolished by act 34 and 35 Viet. c. 81.