From a paper read before the Society of Arts in 1859, by Mr. Leonard 'Wray, it appears that there are eight kinds of wood which are ranked first class' at Lloyd's as employed in shipbuilding ; twenty others are ranked as 'second class,' including mahogany. The finest quality of mahogany is too costly to be used for the large timbers of ships, while the cheaper qualities are not good enough. That good mahogany is a magnificent wood for shipbuilding is, however, well known. A Spanish 80-gun ship, built of mahogany, was captured by the English in 1757; and her timbers, more than a century old, were found to be perfectly Her Majesty's beautiful steam yacht, Victoria and Albert,' is built almost wholly of mahogany; and there is an increasing use of this kind of timber by shipbuilders.
The uses of the mahogany tree for other purposes than its timber are too few to need description here.
MAIL (from the French maille), strictly " the mesh of a net," but applied in a collective view to defensive armour formed of iron rings or round meshes. Boyer, in his French dictionary, translates mauls "a little iron ring." In the ancient armour the habergeon and hauberk were called coats of mail. [Alumna.) Mail or malle was also the name given to a bag or small sack, at first probably because made of network; since applied likewise to the portmantle or portmanteau.
MAIM (in law, mayhem ") is an injury done to the body of a man by forcibly depriving him of the use of some member serviceable in fight, as a means either of defence or offence, and permanently disabling him from offering such an effectual resistance to further attacks upon his person as he otherwise might have done ; as if a foot, hand, or finger, or a joint of the foot or hand, be struck off or made crooked or weakened, or if a bone of the head be removed, or a fore tooth broken or displaced, or if an eye be beaten out, or if any other bodily injury be inflicted whereby the party is rendered less capable of making a vigorous defence. But destruction of a jaw-tooth, of an ear,
or of the nose, or of other members, the loss of which does not interfere with the means of defence or offence, does not amount to mayhem. The distinction however is by statutory alterations in the law rendered of little importance.
Mayhem was formerly punished by inflicting the same privation upon the offender which he had caused to the party maimed. It was afterwards punishable by fine and imprisonment, as an aggravated trespass. But now, by 7 Wm. IV. and 1 Vict., c. 85, to stab, cut, or wound, if with intent to murder, is a capital felony, and if with intent to maim, disfigure, or disable, is a felony punishable by transportation for life, or for not less than 15 years, (for which penal servitude is now substituted) or by imprisonment not exceeding three years. The statute 9 & 10 Vict., c. 25, makes it a felony to maim by the malicious explosion of gunpowder or other explosive substance ; so also by the same statute it is a felony maliciously to cause any gunpowder or explosive substance to explode, or to send to any person any danger ous or noxious thing, or to throw any corrosive fluid or other destructive substance at any person with intent (inter alia) to maim, and these offences are now punishable by penal servitude for life, or imprisonment for three years.
Concurrently with these proceedings in the name of the crown, for the purposes of public justice, the party injured is entitled to com pensation in the shape of damages, to be recovered in an action of trespass ; and where the damages found by the jury are not commen surate to the injury sustained, the court may increase them upon inspection of the mayhem.