MALIC ACID

(Liat. malum, an apple.) A peculiar acid contained in the juice of the apple and several other fruits: it may be obtained also from the berries of the Sorbus aucuparia, or mountain ash, and has hence been called sorbic acid. MALICE (Lat. malitia), in the English Law, does not nece arily bear the signification of particular ill feeling towards an individual, but is a term directly importing wickedne in the commi ion of an act, and excluding a just cause or excuse. {See Murder.) Malicious injury to property is in some instances a felony, in others a misdemeanour; punishable, in some, on summary conviction: the law respecting which is consolidated in one of the statutes commonly called Peel's Acts (7 & 8 G. 4. c.30.). By sect. 25. of this act it is expre ly declared that the word malice, in relation to these injuries, bears its legal and not its popular signification; it being there declared that the act applies, " whether the offence shall 701 MALTHA. be committed from malice conceived against the owner of the property, or otherwise." In civil actions for injuries to which malice is e ential, e.g. slander, libel, ., the question of the existence of malice is one, in general, for the jury; but, under certain circumstances, it may be implied by the court from the absence of reasonable and probable cause, as in actions for malicious prosecution. [s. 714]