took it up, and from the lowest kind of pictorial art have lately done much effective work. In America bill posting has assumed enormous proportions, but actually pictorial work, especially in colors, is not as common as in Europe. (See Advertising.) The most artistic American posters have been produced for the publishers in the form of enlarged magazine covers, as stated above, together with advertisements for books, and calendars, and in these as in nearly all American art the main influence is French. It was not until 1889 that the work of Louis Rhead became known, and along with him must be mentioned Penfield, Will Bradley, Carqueville, George Wharton Edwards, Parish, and Low. Although as a purely artistic production, a subject for collectors and students, the poster has had its day, yet as a medium of advertisement and of political appeal it may have a future. Consult: Maindron, Les affiches illustrées (Paris, 1895); id., Les maîtres de l'affiche (Paris, 1896); id., Les affiches étrangères illustrées (Paris,1897); Hiatt, Picture Posters (London, 1895); Spielman and others, The Modern Poster (New York, 1895); Spousel, Das moderne Plakat (Dresden, 1897); Bolton, The Reign of the Poster (Boston, 1895).
POST′GATE, John Percival (1853—). An English classical philologist, born at Birmingham. He was educated at King Edward's School, Birmingham, and at Trinity College, Cambridge. He became fellow and classical lecturer in Trinity College and professor of comparative philology in University College, London, and editor of the Classical Review. His publications include editions of Catullus, Propertius, and Lucan. He became editor-in-chief of the Corpus Poctarum Latinorum in 1893.
POSTHUMOUS CHILD (Lat. postumus, posthumus, last, superlative of posterus, later; associated by popular etymology with post, behind, after + humus, ground). One born after the father's death, or delivered from the mother by the cæsarian operation after her death. Such a child is regarded by the law, for the purposes of inheritance, and taking property by will, as if it had been born before the parent's death. Where a father makes a will without making provision for a posthumous child, the child is entitled to receive the same share of the estate that he would have taken if the father had died intestate, the will being revoked pro tanto, and the provisions for the other children or legatees being reduced proportionately to make up his share or portion. See Succession; Will.
POSTHUMUS. The husband of Imogen, in Shakespeare's Cymbeline, banished by the King, who intended his daughter for his step-son Cloten. In Italy Posthumus made a wager with Iachimo on Imogen's fidelity, and, deceived by a trick, ordered Pisanio to murder her. Finally Iachimo confessed, and Posthumus was pardoned.
POSTLUDE (from Lat. post, behind, after + ludus, play, from ludere, to play). An instrumental selection played after the conclusion of Divine service, while the congregation is passing out of the church. The term postlude is also applied to the closing instrumental measures at the end of a vocal composition.
POST MORTEM (Lat., after death). A legal term employed to denote an examination of a dead body to determine the cause of death. Usually, some dissection or mutilation of the body is necessary, but this rests in the discretion of the examining physician. A coroner is required to hold a post-mortem examination of the body of a person dying under suspicious circumstances. A person other than a public officer in the performance of his duty has no right to dissect or mutilate a dead body, without the consent of the nearest relative of the deceased, and is liable in damages if he does so without such consent. Consult Perley, Mortuary Law.
POST-MORTEM EXAMINATION. See Autopsy.
POST-NUPTIAL CONTRACT. In its broadest sense, any contract made between husband and wife. As to their privileges and restrictions in this respect, see Contract; Husband and Wife.
POST-OFFICE. A public institution for the reception and delivery of letters, newspapers, books, and such other matter as may by law of the State be intrusted to the mails for conveyance. The post-office is frequently also charged with other duties than the handling of mail. Thus in the United States it issues money orders designed to facilitate the transmission of money, and in European countries it conducts savings institutions and has a monopoly of the facilities for telegraphic communication. The postal service is at present in all civilized countries under the management and control of the Government. The name originated in the posts (from Lat. positum, placed, fixed) placed at intervals along the roads of the Roman Empire where couriers were kept in readiness to bear dispatches and intelligence. The first letter-post seems to have been established in the Hansa towns in the early part of the thirteenth century as a means of facilitating commercial intercourse. In England a system of posts for dispatching letters was early provided. Sir Brian Tuke being mentioned as the first Master of the Posts in the reign of Henry VIII. In the reign of Elizabeth a chief postmastership was established. Thomas Randolph being the first incumbent. With the accession of James I. to the throne of England and the consequent increased intercourse between England and Scotland a marked improvement in the postal system followed. In the reign of Charles I. a monopoly of letter-carrying was established, the rates of postage being fixed at from 2d. to 6d. for a single letter, according to distance, in England, 8d. to Scotland, and 9d. to Ireland. In 1680 a penny post was established for the conveyance of letters and parcels between different parts of London and its suburbs. In the reign of Anne the existing postal statutes were repealed and the post-office establishment placed on a new basis. A general post-office was instituted at London for the British dominions, with chief offices at Edinburgh, Dublin, New York, and other places in America, while the whole system was placed under the control of a postmaster-general with power to appoint deputies for the chief offices. Near the end of the eighteenth century coaches were substituted for riders on horseback. With the development of the railway system came the carriage of letters by train instead of by mail-coaches; and one novelty which arose out of this change was the adoption of traveling post-offices,
