MORTIFICATION

(Lat. mors, death, and facio, 7 cause.) Local death, gangrene. When any portion of the body loses its vitality, a proce of separation takes place between it and the living parts that surround it; and when this happens [n certain parts or organs, it i> nece arily total, ploma that attend mortification of the viscera are generally lo of pain, diminution Of fever, small, sinking pulse, hiccough, delirium, cold sweat, and fainting, which death. Mortikk ation, in Scottish Law, is nearly synonymous with mortmain in English. By an art of l.">87, land vested in the church was declared to be given for superstitious and to belong to the crown; and thus the spolia-; ■■ richly-endowed church of that country, prior to the Reformation, was finally legalized. MORTISE (Pr. mortaiae), Jo Architecture, is the junction of two pieces of wood or other material, the cavity cut lag the receiving correspondent portion of the •rood of the other, which is called a tenon. [s. 793]