“ PARRICIDE (probably for Lat. patricidia, from pater, father, and cacdere, to slay) , strictly the murder of a parent; the term however has been extended to include the murder of any relative or of an ascendant by a descendant. The first Roman law against parricide was that of the Lex Cornelia de sicariis et veneficis (c. 81 B.C.) , which enacted that the murderer of a parent should be sewed up in a sack and thrown into the sea, and provided other punishments for the killing of near relatives. ”

“ English law has never made any legal distinction between killing a parent or other relative and simple murder, and the Netherlands and Germany follow in the same direction. French law has been exceptionally severe in its treatment of parricide. Before the Revolution, the parricide if a male, had to make a recantation of his crime, and then suffered the loss of his right hand; his body was afterwards burned and the ashes scattered to the winds. If the parricide was a female she was burned or hanged. ”