THUS stands the law, if a person be killed by a fall from a thing standing still. But if a horse, or ox, or other animal, of his own motion, kill as well an infant as an adult, or if a cart run over him, they shall in either case be forfeited as deodands[y]; which is grounded upon this additional reason, that such misfortunes are in part owing to the negligence of the owner, and therefore he is properly punished by such forfeiture. A like punishment is in like cases inflicted by the mosaical law[z]: "if an ox gore a man that he die, the ox shall be stoned, and his flesh shall not be eaten." And among the Athenians[a], whatever was the cause of a man's death, by falling upon him, was exterminated or cast out of the dominions of the republic. Where a thing, not in motion, is the occasion of a man's death, that part only which is the immediate cause is forfeited; as if a man be climbing up a wheel, and is killed by falling from it, the wheel alone is a deodand[b]: but, wherever the thing is in motion, not only that part which immediately gives the wound, (as the wheel, which runs over his body) but all things which move with it and help to make the wound more dangerous (as the cart and loading, which increase the pressure of the wheel) are forfeited[c]. It matters not whether the owner were concerned in the killing or not; for if a man kills another with my sword, the sword is forfeited[d] as an accursed thing[e]. And therefore, in all indictments for homicide, the instrument of death and the value are presented and found by the grand jury (as, that the stroke was given with a certain penknife, value sixpence) that the king or his grantee may claim the deodand: for it is no deodand, unless it be presented as such by a jury of twelve men[f]. No deodands are due for accidents happening upon the high sea, that being out of the jurisdiction of the common law: but if a man falls from a boat or ship in fresh water, and is drowned, the vessel and cargo are in strictness a deodand[g]. [Footnote y: _Omnia, quae movent ad mortem, sunt Deo danda._ Bracton. _l._ 3. _c._ 5.] [Footnote z: Exod. 21. 28.] [Footnote a: Aeschin. _contr. Ctesiph._] [Footnote b: 1 Hal. P.C. 422.] [Footnote c: 1 Hawk. P.C. c. 26.] [Footnote d: A similar rule obtained among the antient Goths. _Si quis, me nesciente, quocunque meo telo vel instrumento in perniciem suam abutatur; vel ex aedibus meis cadat, vel incidat in puteum meum, quantumvis tectum et munitum, vel in cataractam, et sub molendino meo confringatur, ipse aliqua mulcta plectar; ut in parte infelicitatis meae numeretur, habuisse vel aedificasse aliquod quo homo periret._ Stiernhook _de jure Goth._ _l._ 3. _c._ 4.] [Footnote e: Dr & St. d. 2. c. 51.] [Footnote f: 3 Inst. 57.] [Footnote g: 3 Inst. 58. 1 Hal. P.C. 423. Molloy _de jur. maritim._ 2. 225.]