ADOPT

To accept, appropriate, choose, or select; to make that one's own (property or act) which was not so originally. To adopt a route for the transportation of the mail means to take the steps nece ary to cause the mail to be transported over that route. Rhodes v. U. S., Dev. Ct; Cl. 47. To adopt a contract is to accept it as binding, notwithstanding some defect which entitles the party to repudiate it. Thus, when a person affirms a voidable contract, or ratifies a contract made by his agent beyond his authority, he is said to adopt it. Sweet. To accept, consent to, and put into effective operation; as in the case of a constitution, constitutional amendment, ordinance, or by-law. Real v. People, 42 N. Y. 282; People v. Norton, 59 Barb. (N. Y.) 191. To take into one's family the child of another and give him or her the rights, privileges, and duties of a child and heir. State T. Thompson, 13 La. Ann. 515; Abney v. De Loach, 84 Ala. 393, 4 South. 757; In re Se ions' Estate, 70 Mich. 297, 38 N. W. 249, 14 Am. St. Rep. 500; Smith v..Allen, 32 App. Dlv. 374, 53 N. Y. Supp. 114. Adoption of children was a_ thing unknown to the common law, but was a familiar practice under the Roman law and in those countries where the civil law prevails, as France and Spain. Modem statutes authorizing adoption are taken ftoi:n the civil law, and to that extent modify the -rnJes of the common law as to the i me ce ion of J>roperty. Butter field T. Sawyer, 187 111. 598, 68 N. E. 602, 52 L. R., A. 75, 79 Am. St. Rep. 246;,Vidal v. Commagere, 13' La. [s. 46]