DEODAND (Deo dandum, a thing to be given to God) has been used in England from very early times to denote any personal chattel which is forfeited because it has been the immediate cause of death to a human being. For ex-
ample, if a horse strike his keeper and kill him; if a man, in driving a cart, meet his death by falling under the wheel; if a tree, when felled, falls and kills a person: in the first case the horse, in the second the cart-wheel, cart, and horses, and in the third the tree, are forfeited to the king, to be applied to pious purposes, and distributed in alms by his high almoner. In general, however, the right to deodands—within certain limits—was granted by the crown either to individuals for an estate of inheritance, or as pertaining to lands. "Omnia que movent ad mortem sunt deodanda," says Bracton. This law probably was derived from that promulgated in Exodus xxi.—"If an ox gore a man or a woman that they die, then the ox shall be surely stoned to death, and his flesh shall not be eaten; but the owner of the ox shall be quit:" and afterwards the instrument came to be devoted to pious uses. Fleta (a pseudonymous commentator on English law in the reign of Edward I.) says that the deodand is to be sold, and the price distributed to the poor, for the soul of the king, his ancestors, and all faithful people departed this life. The rule has been, that when the instrument of death is at rest, and is composed of several parts, the particular part by which the person is killed shall alone be forfeited; as, for instance, if a man, in climbing up the wheel of a cart, falls and is killed, the wheel only is a deodand.
This ancient custom was abolished by act 9th and 10th Vict., cap. 62, which enacts that subsequent to September 1, 1846, there shall be no forfeiture of chattels in respect of homicide.