CHAPTER XXV.

'THE MALICIOUS INFLICTION OF BODILY INJURIES
AMOUNTING TO FELONY.

ARTICLE 236.

WOUNDINGS AND ACTS ENDANGERING LIFE PUNISHABLE WITH PENAL SERVITUDE FOR LIFE.

EVERY one is guilty of felony, and liable to penal servitude for life as a maximum punishment, who does any of the following things unlawfully and maliciously; that is to say

(a.) 2 who, with intent to maim, disfigure, or disable any person, or to do some other grievous bodily harm to any person, or to resist or prevent the lawful apprehension or detainer of any person,

by any means whatsoever 3 wounds or causes any grievous bodily harm to any person, or shoots at any person, or by drawing a trigger, or in any other manner attempts to discharge at any person any kind of loaded arms; or

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(b.) shoots at any vessel or boat belonging to Her Majesty's navy, or in the service of the revenue, within one hundred leagues of any part of the coast of the United Kingdom, or

(c.) maliciously shoots at, maims, or wounds any officer of the army, navy, or marines, being duly employed in the prevention of smuggling, and on full pay, or any officer of customs or excise, or any person acting in his aid or assist

13 Hist. Cr. Law, ch. xxvii. pp. 108-120. Draft Code, Part XVIII. ss. 188202.

2 24 & 25 Vict. c. 100, s. 18, S.

3 To wound means to divide the surface of the body whether it be an internal or an external surface, e.g. the inside of the mouth. R. v. Leonard Smith, 8 C. & P. 173, and see other cases in 1 Russ. Cr. 921.

But not by attempting to draw a trigger: R. v. St. George, 9 C. & P. 483.

5 See p. 168, note 3, for definition of loaded arms.

39 & 40 Vict. c. 36, s. 193. The word "unlawfully" is not in this section.

ance, or duly employed for the prevention of smuggling, in the execution of his office or duty; or

(d.) who, with intent to enable himself or any other person to commit, or with intent to assist any other person in committing, any indictable offence,

2 attempts by any means whatsoever to choke, suffocate, or strangle any other person, or attempts by any means calculated to choke, suffocate, or strangle, to render any other person insensible, unconscious, or incapable of resistance;

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3 or administers to any person any chloroform, laudanum, or other stupefying or overpowering 5 matter, or attempts to do so;

(e.) 6 or who burns, maims, disfigures, disables, or does any grievous bodily harm to any person by the explosion of gunpowder or other explosive substance;

(f.) or who, with intent to burn, maim, disfigure, or disable any person, or to do some grievous bodily harm to any person, causes any gunpowder or other explosive substance to explode, or

sends or delivers, or causes to be taken or received by any person, any explosive substance or other dangerous or noxious thing, or puts or lays at any place or casts or throws at or upon or otherwise applies to any person any corrosive fluid or destructive or explosive substance;

(g.) or who, with intent to endanger the safety of any person travelling, or being upon any railway,

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puts or throws anything upon or across any railway, or

124 & 25 Vict. c. 100, ss. 21 & 22.

2 Ibid. s. 21. An offender against this section is liable, if a male of whatever age, to be thrice privately whipped in addition to the other punishments specified above: 26 & 27 Vict. c. 44, s. 1, and see Article 12 (d.), as to the manner of inflicting the punishment.

3 Ibid. s. 22. The word "maliciously " does not apply to this section. 4"Applies or administers to, or causes to be taken by, or attempts to apply or administer to or attempts to cause to be administered to or taken by." "Drug, matter, or thing."

24 & 25 Vict. c. 100, s. 28, S. W.

Ibid. s. 29, S. W.

8 Ibid. s. 32, W.

"Any wood, stone, or other matter or thing."

takes up, removes, or displaces any rail, sleeper, or other matter or thing belonging to any railway, or

turns, moves, or diverts any points or other machinery belonging to any railway, or

makes or shows, hides or removes, any signal or light upon or near any railway, or does or causes to be done any other matter or thing;

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(h.) or who throws 3 anything at any carriage used upon any railway with intent to injure or endanger the safety of any person therein or thereon, or in or upon any other 4 carriage forming part of the same train;

(i.) or who prevents or impedes any person being on board of or having quitted any ship or vessel in distress, wrecked, stranded, or cast on shore, in his endeavour to save his life, or prevents and impedes any person in his endeavour to save the life of any person so situated;

(j.) or who, being a woman with child, unlawfully administers to herself any poison or other noxious thing or unlawfully uses any instrument or other means whatsoever with intent to procure her own miscarriage;

(k.) or who, with intent to procure the miscarriage of any woman whether she be or be not with child, unlawfully administers to or causes to be taken by her any poison or other noxious thing, or unlawfully uses any instrument or other means whatsoever with the like intent.

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124 & 25 Vict. c. 100, s. 33.

2 Throws, or causes to fall, or strike at, against, into, or upon.

3 Any wood, stone, or other matter or thing.

Engine, tender, carriage, or truck.

$ 24 & 25 Vict. c. 100, s. 17, S.

Ibid. s. 58, S. A person who gives another a drug to be taken in the absence of the giver 66 causes it to be taken," and, it would seem, "administers" it, though absent when it is taken: R. v. Wilson, D. & B. 127, and cases referred to in the argument; also R. v. Farrow, D. & B. 164.

7 Ibid. s. 58, S.

8 A thing not otherwise noxious may be noxious if administered in excess, but some things are so commonly noxious (arsenic, e.g.) that perhaps the administration even of a quantity too small to do harm might be held to constitute the offence punished by this section if there were an intent to procure miscarriage. See R. v. Cramp, L. R. 5 Q. B. D. 307; also R. v. Isaacs, L. & C. 220, and R. v. Hennah, 13 Cox, C. C. 347.

ARTICLE 237.

BLOWING UP BUILDINGS AND SHIPS WITH INTENT TO INJUREFOURTEEN YEARS PENAL SERVITUDE.

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Every one is guilty of felony, and is liable on conviction to a maximum punishment of fourteen years penal servitude, who, with intent to do any bodily injury to any person, unlawfully and maliciously places or throws any gunpowder or other explosive substance in, into, upon, against, or near any building, ship or vessel, whether or not any explosion takes place, and whether or not any bodily injury is effected.

ARTICLE 238.

ADMINISTERING POISON SO AS TO ENDANGER LIFE OR CAUSE HARM-TEN YEARS PENAL SERVITUDE.

2 Every one is guilty of felony, and is liable upon conviction to a maximum punishment of ten years penal servitude, who unlawfully and maliciously administers to, or causes to be administered to, or taken by any other person any poison or other destructive or noxious thing, so as thereby to endanger the life of such person, or so as thereby to inflict upon such person any grievous bodily harm.

124 & 25 Vict. c. 100, s. 30, S. W.

2 Ibid. s. 23.

CHAPTER XXVI.

THE INFLICTION OF BODILY INJURIES NOT AMOUNTING T)

FELONY.

ARTICLE 239.

MALICIOUS WOUNDING AND SIMILAR ACTS PUNISHABLE WITH

FIVE YEARS PENAL SERVITUDE.

EVERY one commits a misdemeanor and is liable to a maximum punishment of five years penal servitude, who

(a.) 2 unlawfully and maliciously wounds or inflicts any grievous bodily harm upon any other person either with or without any weapon or instrument;

(b.) 3 or who unlawfully and maliciously administers, or causes to be administered to or taken by any other person, any poison or other destructive or noxious thing with intent to injure, aggrieve, or annoy such person;

(c.) or who unlawfully supplies or procures any poison or other noxious thing, or any instrument or thing whatsoever, knowing that the same is intended to be unlawfully used or employed with intent to procure the miscarriage of any woman, whether she be or be not with child (even if the intention so to use the same exists only in his own mind, and is not entertained by the woman whose miscarriage he intends to procure).

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(d.) or who, being legally liable either as a master or a mistress, to provide for any apprentice or servant necessary

1 Draft Code, Part XVIII. ss. 188-202.

224 & 25 Vict. c. 100, s. 20. "Maliciously" in this section covers all cases in which a person wilfully and without lawful excuse does that which he knows to be likely to injure another: R. v. Martin, L. R. 8 Q. B. D. 54.

3 Ibid. s. 24. An intent to excite sexual passion is within this provision: R. v. Wilkins, L. & C. 80.

Ibid. s. 59. To supply a thing which is not noxious with the intent mentioned is not within the section: R. v. Isaac, L. & C. 220.

5 R. v. Hillman, L. & C. 343.

624 & 25 Vict. c. 100, s. 26.