UNDERSTANDING. 626 UNDUE INFLUENCE. have either dropped out of use or at least have come to play a very subordinate part. Consult: W'undt, Pliysioloyische Psi/cliologie (4th ed., Leip- zig. 1893) : James, Principles of Psychology (New York, 18'JO) ; Sully, The Human Mind (London, 1892). UNDERWING MOTH. Any noctuid moth of the subfamily Catocalinae, and especially one of the type genus Catoeala, of which more than a hundred species inhabit the United States. Many have beautifully colored hind wings, w-hich, however, are entirely concealed by the others when they are at rest. They are night-tiiers, and generally pass the day upon trunks or branches of trees Vi'hich they closely resemble in coloring. The larva; are inconspicuous, and are usually protectively colored, and curious lateral struc- tures have been developed for the purpose of disguising the resting-line between the larva and the surface upon wjiich it stands. Some of them have developed bright warning colors in spots which may be exhibited at the will of the larva. UN'DERWOOD, Licien M.Rcr.s (1853—). An American botanist, born in Xew Woodstock, N. Y., and educated at Syracuse University. He taught in Illinois Wesleyan University (1880- 83), in Syracuse University (1883-91). in De Pauw University (1891-95), and in the Alabama Polytechnic Institute (1895-96), whence he was called to a chair of botany in Columbia Univer- sit.y. He published Our ative Ferns and How to'Study Them ( 1881 : revised in 1882 as Our .Yn- twe Ferns and Their Allies, 5th ed. 1900) ; De- scriptive Catalogue of 'North American HepaticcB (1884); An UUistrative Century of Fungi (1889); Hcpaticw Americnna; (1887-93); Moulds, Mildews, and Mushrooms (1899); and several bulletins of the Alabama Agricultural Experimental Station. UNDERWRITER. In ordinary usage, a per- son who is authorized to negotiate insurance con- tracts. In modern financial practice a peculiar form of insurance has arisen to which the term underwriting is applied. It has been resorted to for many j'ears in marketing new securities fcr established corporations, but has reached its high- est development in the financing of the large in- dustrial corporations recently formed. When a large»corporation is organized to absorb a number of existing companies it is usually necessary to raise a large sum of money to serve as a work- ing capital or to be employed in the purchase of stock in the original companies which holders are unwilling to exchange for new securities. To raise this cash the services of an underwriter are usually secured. The underwriting contract is one by which the company is assured of a definite amount of capital within a stated time. The underwriter binds himself to take at some stated future time a stipulated part of the securi- ties of the new company at a price named in the contract, unless such a part is sold before that time at as high a price. He usually further agrees to advance at once the capital needed to launch the company. The underwriter leaves a wide margin between the price at which he agrees to take the stock and the price at which he hopes to sell it. A part of his reward comes from this source. He sometimes exacts in addition a bonus of stock for himself, or a commission on all stock sold, and occasionally stipulates that none of the stock given to others shall be put on the market until he has disposed of the entire amount that he has underwritten. The securities of a corporation of any magni- tude are seldom underwritten by a single person or firm. The original underwriter usually allows other bankers or favored customers to share in the underwriting. The group is known as an underwriting syndicate. The original under- writer usually acts as syndicate manager. Each member of the syndicate subscribes for a part of the stock. The cash that has to be raised to carry out the agreement with the company is secured by the syndicate manager partlj' through an assessment pro rata upon the members of the syndicate, partly by borrowing on the security of the underwriting. At the expiration of the time limit the syndicate manager distributes the profit of the transaction pro rata among the members, if the specified amount of stock has been .sold. If some of it still remains unsold, whatever profit has been realized is distributed, and each mem- ber of the syndicate is called upon to take his proportionate share of the unsold stock at the stipulated price. UNDINES (ML. undina, from Lat. unda, wave). The name given in the fanciful system of the Paracelsists to the elementary spirits of the water. Paracelsus describes the Undines in his Treatise oi Elemental Spirits. They are of the female sex. Of all the different orders of elementary spirits, they intermarry most read- ily with human beings, and the Undine who gives birth to a child under such a union receives with her babe a hiunan soul. But the man who takes an Undine to wife must be careful not to go on the water with her, or at least not to anger her while there, for in that case she will return to her original element. Should this happen, the Undine is not disposed to consider her marriage dissolved; she will rather seek to destroy her husband, should he venture on a second marriage. Fouque has made this Para- celsist fancy the basis of an exquisite tale, en- titled Vndine. published in 1814, and frequently translated into English. UNDUE INFLUENCE. In law, such an in- fluence or control exercised over the mind of a testator that his will is practically overpowered, and that he is constrained by it to make some disposition of his property by will contrary to ■ his own best judgment and wishes. Mere persuasion, appeals to the charity, benevolence, affections, gratitude, or pride, of a testator will not constitute undue influence, unless carried to such an extent that the mind of the testator is virtually overpowered. For example, one of several children may suggest to one of their parents that the latter should bequeath to him a larger share of his property than to the others, and urge as a reason that he labors under some disability rendering him less able to support him- self than the others, or that the others have been abundantly provided for by bequests or devises from other relatives, etc. Where a will is contested on the ground of undue influence, the courts will scrutinize very carefully the re- lationship which existed between the testator and the beneficiary, and if it was of a confiden- tial or fiduciary character, as that of attorney and client, physician and patient, religious con-
