=4. Tenancy by Courtesy and Possessio Patris.=--“When a man marries a woman seised of an estate of inheritance, and has by her issue _born alive_, which was capable of inheriting her estate; in this case he shall, on the death of his wife, hold the lands for his life as tenant by the courtesy of England.” There is yet another case bearing closely on this subject, known in law as _possessio fratris_. On this subject Mr. Amos writes: “In the event of a man twice married dying, and leaving a daughter by each marriage, his estate would be equally shared by the daughters of the two marriages; but if we suppose that there is also a son by the second marriage, born in a doubtful state, the legal effect of his momentarily surviving birth would be to disinherit the daughter of the first marriage entirely, and transfer the whole of the estate to the daughter of the second marriage, she being sister to the male heir, while the daughter of the first marriage is only half-blood.” In both of these cases proof of live birth, as before mentioned, is of the slenderest kind. A fœtus in the womb (_en ventre sa mère_) may--(_a_) Have a legacy or estate made over to it. (_b_) A guardian assigned to it. That these conditions may take effect, it must be born alive. (_c_) Be an executor. To exercise this _post partum_ function, the child must in England have attained the age of twenty-one. LEGITIMACY Every child born in wedlock is presumed to have the husband of the woman as its father; but this presumption may be denied for the following reasons: 1. Absence or death of the reputed father. 2. Impotence or disease in the reputed father, preventing matrimonial intercourse. 3. In the case of a premature delivery in a newly-married woman. 4. Want of access. 5. The paternity of the child may be disputed when the woman marries immediately after the death of her husband. In Scotland, a child is held to be legitimate if born ten lunar months after the death or absence of its alleged father; and the absence of the supposed father must continue till within six lunar months of the birth of the child, to prove its illegitimacy. In the same country, a child born before marriage is rendered legitimate by the subsequent marriage of the parents. This is not the case in England. A child born during wedlock is legitimate, although the date of conception may be before marriage. A child born after the death of its mother is held to be legitimate. A child may, as Taylor remarks, be conceived before marriage, and born after the death of the mother, and yet be legitimate, though neither conceived nor born in wedlock. The Code Napoleon prohibits the contraction of a second marriage until ten months after the death of the first husband; and this is also the case in Germany. The Anglo-Saxon law prohibits remarriage for twelve months. In Britain no time is fixed by law.