V N RE INSP1CILNDO, WRIT DE. " When a widow is suspected to feign herself with child in order to pro duce a suppositious heir to the estate, the heir presumptive may have a writ de ventre inspiciendo, to examine whether she be with child or not; and, if she be, to keep her under proper restraint till delivered ; which is entirely conformable to the practice of the civil law : but if the widow be, upon due examination, found not to be pregnant, the presump tive heir shall be admitted to the inherit ance, though he h'jth to lose it again, on the birth of a child within forty weeks from the death of a husband." (Blackstone, Comm. i. 456.) The Roman practice is explained in the Title of the Digest (25 tit. 4): De inspiciendo ventre custodien doque partu. The practice originated in the joint reigns of Aurelius and Verus, 'n a case in which a wife denied her pregnancy and the husband maintained it. The wife had separated from the husband, and probably wished to keep the child that might be born, though by law it would belong to the husband. If a woman alleged that she was left preg nant by her deceased husband, it was her duty to announce the fact to those whom it concerned, and to inform them that they might, if they pleased, send women to inspect her (qua ventrem inspiciant).
All the proceedings of inspection and of watching the woman, if she should be reported to be with child, are minutely prescribed in the Prmtor's Edict. The penalty in case of the woman not com plying with the Edict was, that the Pra. tor would refuse to the child the Bono rum Possessio.
The form of the English writ De Ventre Inspiciendo is given Co. Litt. 8 b. It is di rected to the sheriff; and commands him to empanel a jury of twelve women to search whether she be enseint. If they find that she is with child, another writ issues which commands that she shall be safely kept and duly inspected by the women, who must be present at the delivery.
The use of this writ is an instance in which what is called a proceeding at common law is taken from the Roman system. The writ is not obsolete, as some people suppose ; it has issued within the last fifteen years. (Co. Litt. 8 b., and N. 44 in Butler's edition ; Comyns, Di gest, Bastard, C.)