FOREWORD The completion of Fletcher's Cyclopedia of Corporations and the satisfaction with which it was received by the Bar suggested the application of a similar method of treatment to the subject of Criminal Law. The well-known writers of the publisher's editorial staff, who were responsible for the excellence of the Cyclopedia of Corporations, were available and the need for such a work was apparent. The aim sought to be accomplished in the preparation of this work was the presentation of the entire substantive law of Crimes in a work of reasonable compass, which would meet every requirement of the practitioner, whether engaged largely in the trial of criminal cases or as counsel directing the path of clients seeking to avoid the pitfalls of the criminal law. Every effort has been made to make the work complete, from offenses long recognized as criminal to acts which have become criminal by reason of recent legislation. The paternalistic tendencies of government during the last decade or two, coupled with the well-known American habit of regarding the passage of legislative enactments, largely penal in character, as a remedy for every condition deemed obnoxious by various groups, social, political and economic, and the innumerable regulations imposed on personal habits, business and the like, have resulted in a tremendous expansion of criminal and quasi criminal law. One of the greatest problems in a work embracing so broad a field was to keep it within reasonable compass. Considering the wealth of material it would have been easier to prepare six volumes than three, but the additional three volumes would merely add to the expense of the purchaser without adding to the usefulness of the work. The size of the work has been rigidly kept down by terseness of expression, and the elimination of elementary treatment and cumulations of citations to thoroughly established principles of the criminal law. For the most part the principles of the criminal law are quite well established. The exceptions and distinctions are the important factors and it is upon these that the greatest emphasis has been laid. By keeping in mind that the work was intended primarily for practicing lawyers, and the varied needs of the practitioner, and by the most rigid economy of space, it has been possible to present, in three volumes, a complete work on the law of Crimes from the well-known offenses of the common law to the more recent offenses growing out of violations of the Volstead Act and the Income Tax Acts. Though the brunt of the work has fallen upon Mr. Hascal R. Brill, who was the author of many of the most important chapters of the Cyclopedia of Corporations, he has been ably assisted by other members of the publisher's editorial staff, of whom Mr. Basil Jones and Mr. Ray L. Swift are entitled to special credit. All of the writers employed on the work have been not only experienced writers, but experienced practitioners, thus enabling them to appreciate the needs of the lawyer and to combine the practical with the theoretical. In the hope that it will serve as useful a purpose in its field as the Cyclopedia of Corporations did in the field of the law of Corporations, the Cyclopedia of Criminal Law is presented to the profession. It makes no claim to being a scholarly masterpiece, but like the lowly hammer of the carpenter seeks only to be of service. CALLAGHAN & COMPANY. TABLE OF CONTENTS § 2. Distinction between public and private wrongs. § 3. Same act may be both a tort and a crime.. § 20. Recognition and adoption in the United States. § 21. Offenses against the federal government and in territory subject to |