*361.* _Custody, Maternal Relatives, Father._—A parent is entitled to the care and custody of his child if he is competent to transact his own business and not otherwise unsuitable. And the mere fact that the maternal relatives who have had the care of the child from its birth have become attached to it and desire to continue to care for it and are able to secure it better advantages than its parent, does not render the parent unsuitable to have its care and custody within the meaning of the statute. Also, the want of a sympathetic nature or cold reserve in a parent or the fact that he is away on business a great deal of the time, is not sufficient to render him unsuitable. But the right of the father may be lost or forfeited by his ill-conduct, gross ill-treatment, cruelty, or abandonment, or when his conduct and life are such as are injurious to the morals and interest of his child. When the father dies or forfeits his right for reasons already given, the mother, if alive, succeeds to all those rights, subject, however, to the same conditions as the father. And in the case of a child of tender years, the good of the child has to be regarded as the predominant consideration.(640) *362.* _Mother, Illegitimate, Father._—The mother has a right to the care and custody of her illegitimate child to the same extent that a parent has to his legitimate child.(641) The putative father on the mother’s death succeeds to the mother’s rights as against the maternal relatives and may secure the custody of the child by _habeas corpus_. This rule is different from the one that prevailed in the Roman law.(642) However, when the father has given bond for the care, support, and education of an illegitimate child, his right to the custody of the child may be superior.(643) *363.* _Legitimatized._—And when under a statute a child is legitimatized by acknowledgment or subsequent marriage, the father has the better right to its custody.(644) Usually there are many provisions in the statutes of the various States which substantially provide for the rights, relative and otherwise, of the parents and child in such cases. *364.* _Punishment, Instrument, Murder._—A parent or a person _in foro domestico_ or _in loco parentis_ may give reasonable corrective punishment with a fit instrument to a child. But if a parent or master whips a child so that it dies, he is guilty of manslaughter. And if he uses lethal instruments of punishment, he is guilty of murder.(645) Where a mother in anger threw a poker at one child and hit and killed another child, she was guilty of manslaughter.(646) The punishment always becomes unlawful when it is excessive, and drunkenness is no excuse.(647)