of the court of chancery, will turn the scale when there is an equality of equitable rights between two contracting parties. Thus, if the third mortgagee had no notice at the time of making his advance of the existence of the second mortgagee, the equities of the two claimants are supposed to be equal, and if nothing else intervened priority of time would decide the order of their rights. But if the third mortgagee gets an assignment of the first mortgage, he can tack his third mortgage to the first, and so postpone the second mortgagee. And if the first mortgagee himself makes an additional advance after the date of the second mortgage, but without notice of it, his whole debt will take precedence of the second mortgage. A similar result of equitable rules is seen in the consolidation of securities. Two separate estates, mortgaged at different times and for different sums of money by the same mortgagor to the same mortgagee, are regarded as consolidated, so that the whole of the land becomes security for the whole of the money, and the owner cannot redeem either mortgage without redeeming the other. If the mortgagor should have mortgaged another estate for more than its value, the holder of the deficient security may buy in the first mortgage, consolidate it with his own, and exclude the second mortgagee.
An equitable mortgage is constituted simply by the deposit of title-deeds in security for money advanced. The enactment of the Statute of Frauds that no action shall be brought on “any contract or sale of lands,” &c., or any interests in or concerning them unless the agreement be in writing and signed by the party to be charged, has been cited as incompatible with the recognition of equitable mortgages, but it is argued by Lord Abinger that the act was never meant to affect such a transaction. The deeds which are the evidence of title could not be recovered in an action at law, and, if they were claimed in equity, the court would require the claimant to do equity by repaying the money borrowed on the deposit. Any subsequent legal mortgagee, having notice of the deposit, will be postponed to the equitable mortgagee, and when the legal mortgagee has not inquired as to the title-deeds the court will impute to him such knowledge as he would have acquired if he had made inquiry. A Welsh mortgage is one in which an estate is conveyed to a creditor, who takes the rents and profits in lieu of interest and without account, the estate being redeemable at any time on payment of the principal. Any form of property, with few exceptions, may be mortgaged.
United States.—In the United States there has been express legislation dealing with mortgages of land in most of the states. For the most part legislation has followed the lines of the English law, but there is a great variation in the extent to which the principles of equity have been substituted for the rules of common law. In some states, the mortgage deed is held to create a seizin of and an estate in the premises, with all its common law incidents, to be enforced if need be by ejectment. In others, the mortgagee’s rights are limited to such as the rules of equity prescribe, and may not be enforced by a suit at law. In yet others, the mortgagee’s interest is not deemed an estate at all, but is here only to be enforced by the sale of the premises as a means of paying the debt.
See Fisher on Mortgages; Coote on Mortgages; Ashburner on Mortgages; L. A. Jones, Treatise on the Law of Corporate Bonds and Mortgages (Indianapolis, 1907).
MORTIER, EDOUARD ADOLPHE CASIMIR JOSEPH, Duke of Treviso (1768–1835), marshal of France, was born at Cateau
Cambrésis on the 13th of February 1768, and entered the army
as a sub-lieutenant in 1791. He served in the campaigns of
1792 and 1793 on the north-eastern frontier and in the Netherlands,
and subsequently on the Meuse and the Rhine. In
the war against the second coalition in 1799 he was promoted
successively general of brigade and general of division. His
conduct of the French occupation of Hanover led Napoleon
to include Mortier in the first list of marshals created in 1804.
He commanded a corps of the grande armée in the Ulm campaign
in which he distinguished himself particularly by his brilliant
action of Dürrenstein; in 1806 he was again in Hanover and
north-western Germany, and in 1807 he served with the grande
armée in the Friedland campaign. In 1808 he was created
duke of Treviso, and shortly afterwards he commanded an army
corps in Napoleon’s campaign for the recapture of Madrid. He
remained in Spain for two campaigns, winning the victory of
Ocaña in November 1809. In 1812 and 1813 he commanded
the Young Guard, and in the “defensive” campaign of 1814
he rendered brilliant services in command of rearguards and
covering detachments. In 1815, after the flight of Louis XVIII.,
he rejoined Napoleon and was given a high command, but at
the opening of the Waterloo campaign he fell ill. After the
second restoration he was for a time in disgrace, but in 1819
he was readmitted to the Chamber of Peers and in 1825 received
the Order of the Saint Esprit. In 1830–1831 he was ambassador
of France at St Petersburg, and in 1834–1835 minister of war
and president of the council of ministers. In 1835, while
accompanying Louis Philippe to a review, the marshal with
eleven other persons was killed by the bomb aimed at the king
by Fieschi (July 28, 1835).
MORTIFICATION, a term used in pathology and surgery,
signifying a local death (Lat. mors) in the animal body. A
portion of the body may die in consequence of the disturbance
of its nutrition by inflammation, or of a cutting off of the blood-supply,
as by pressure upon, or injury to, the blood-vessels.
A comparatively slight injury affecting a portion of the body
imperfectly supplied with blood may give rise to an inflammatory
condition which in a healthy part might pass unnoticed,
but which, in consequence of imperfect nutrition, may end in
mortification. If the flow of arterial blood only is arrested, the
part depending upon it for nutrition becomes numb, cold and
shrivelled, and the form of mortification known as dry gangrene
occurs. This is apt to be met with in oldish persons with
diseased vessels and feeble heart-action, especially if the blood
is rendered less nutritious by the presence of diabetes or of
kidney disease. The rule of treatment in all cases of threatened
mortification is to keep the part warm by flannel or cotton-wool,
but to avoid all methods which unduly hurry the returning
circulation. Such increase would give rise to excessive reaction,
which, in tissues already weakened, might actually produce
mortification. When the part is dead it should be wrapped
up in dry antiseptic dressings to prevent putrefaction. The
surgeon should then wait until the “line of demarcation,” a
linear ulceration, between the living and the dead part is evident,
and then, if the case permits, should amputate at a higher level.
In spreading gangrene, in which acute sepsis is present, and
in which no line of demarcation forms, the best chance for the
patient is promptly to amputate high up in sound tissues. In
these cases the blood is generally poisoned, and if the patient
recovers from the primary shock of the operation, the disease
may reappear in the stump, and lead to a fatal result.
Frost-bite.—Under the influence of cold, the blood-vessels contract, and less blood is conveyed to the tissues. Frost-bite is particularly apt to attack the feet, the hands, and the tips of the ears. The condition is unassociated with pain, for the reason that the nerves are benumbed. As no blood is passing into the skin, the parts look like tallow, and thus attract the attention of the companions of the frost-bitten man, who perhaps has no thought of there being anything amiss. But because the tissues are frost-bitten it does not follow that they will not recover. The great danger is that, as the blood in the vessels becomes thawed, there will so much reactionary flow through the tissues that acute inflammation will follow. And this inflammation of the damaged tissues is very likely to cause mortification. The re-establishment of the circulation, therefore, should be undertaken with the greatest possible care. The frost-bitten individual must not be brought near a fire nor even into a warm room. Nothing warm should come in contact with the affected parts. The best thing to do is to rub them with snow or with cold water. The thawing is associated with much pain, and in the case of the hand or foot this may be diminished by raising the part, so as to help the return of the venous blood to the heart. If mortification follows, the parts
