ASSAULT.' An unlawful offer or at tempt with force or violence to do a corporal hurt to another.
, Force unlawfully directed or applied to the person of another under such circumstances as to cause a well-founded apprehension of immediate peril.
Aggravated assault is one committed with the intention of coinmitting some additional crime. Simple assaultie one committed with no intention to do 'any other injury.
Assault ia generally coupled with battery, and for the excellent practical reason that they gene rally go together; but the assault is rather the ioi tiatkn or bffi4r to commit the act of which the bat tery is the consummation. An assault is included in every battery. 1- Haivkins, P1. Cr. c. 62, 0 I.
Where a person is only assaulted, still the form of the declaration is the same as where there has been a battery, the defendant assaulted; and beat, bruised, and wounded the plaintiff." 1 Saund. 6th ed. 14 a. The word " ill-treated n is frequently inserted; and if the assaulting and ill-treating are justified in the plea, although the beating, bruising, and wounding are not, yet it is held that the plea amounts to a justification of the battery. 7 Taunt. 689i 1 J. B. Moore, 420. So where the plaintiff declared, in trespass, for assaulting him, seizing and laying hold of him, and imprisoning him, and the defendant pleaded a justification under a writ of capias, it was. held, that, the plea admitted a battery. 3 Mees. & W. Exch. 28. But where in trespass for assaulting the plaintiff, and throwing water upon him, and also wetting and damaging his clothes, the defendant pleaded a justification as to assaulting the plaintiff and wetting and damag ing his clothes, it was held, that, though the decla ration alleged a battery, yet the matter justified by the plea did not amount to a battery. 8 Ad. & E. 602; 3 Nev. & P. 564. And see 1 Bishop, Crim. Law, 0 409.
2. Any act causing a well-founded appre hension of immediate peril from a force al ready partially or fully put in motion is an assault, 4 Carr. & P. 349 ; 9 id. 483, 626 ; 1 Ired. No. C. 125, 375 ; 11 id. 475 ; 1 Serg. & R. Penn. 347 ; 3 Strobh. So. C. 187 ; 9 Ala.
79 ; 2 Wash. C. C. 435 ; unless justifiable. But if justifiable, it is not necessarily either a battery or an assault. Whether the act, therefore, in any particular case is an assault and battery, or a gentle-imposition of hands, or application of force, depends upon the question whether there was justifiable cause. If, therefore, the evidence fails to show the act to have been• unjustifiable, or leaves that question in doubt, the criminal act is not proved, and the party charged is entitled to an acquittal. 2 Mete. Mass. 24, 25 ; 1 Gray, Mass. 63, 64.
3. If a master takes indecent liberties with a female scholar, without her consent, though she does not resist, it is an assault. Russ. & R. Cr. Cas. 130 ; 6 Cox, Cr. Cas. 64; 9 Carr. &. P. 722. So, if a medical practitioner necessarily strips a female patient naked, under the pretence that he cannot otherwise judge of her illness, it is an assault, if he assisted to take off her clothes. 1 Moody, 19 ; 1 Lewin, 11. Where a medical man had connection with a girl fourteen years of age, under the pretence that he was thereby treating her medically- for the complaint for which he was attending her, she making no resistance solely from the bond fide belief that such was the cast, it was held that he was properly convicted of an assault. 1 Den. Cr. Cas. 580; 4 Cox, Cr. Cas. 220; Tempi. & M. Cr. Cas. 218. But -an attempt to commit the misdemeanor of having carnal knowledge of a girl between ten and twelve years old, is not an assault, by reason of the consent of the girl. 8 Carr. & P. 589 ; 2 Mood. Cr. Cas. 123 ; 9 Carr. & P. 213, 215 ; 8 id. 574 ; 7 Cox, Cr. Cas. 145. And see 1 Den. Cr. Cas. 377 ; 2 Carr. & K. 957; 3 Cox, Cr. Cas. 266 ; Templ. & M. Cr. Cas. 52. In one case it was held that if a person puts a deleterious drug (as cantharides) into coffee, in order that another may take it, if it is taken, he is guilty of an assault upon the party by whom it is taken. 8 Carr. & P. 660. But this case has been overruled. 2 Mood. & R. 531; 2 Carr. & K. 912 ; 1 Cox, Cr. Cas. 282. An unlawful imprisonment is also an assault. 1 Hawkins, Pl. Cr. c. 62,