MORTIFICATION

(Lat. mors, death, and facio, I 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 in certain parts or organs it is nece arily fatal. The symptoms that attend mortification of the viscera are generally lo of pain, diminution of fever, small sinking pulse, hiccup, delirium, cold sweat, and fainting, which precedes death. Mortification, m Scottish Law, is nearly synonymous with mortmain in English. By an act of 1.587, land vested in the church was declared to be given for superstitious purposes, and to belong to the crown; and thus the spoliation of the richly endowed church of that country prior to tiie Reformation was finally legalized. MORTISE (Fr. mortaise), in Architecture, is the junction of two pieces of wood or other material, the cavity cut in one piece being the receiving correspondent portion of the wood of the other, which is called a tenon. [s. 787]