DOCK. 343 DOCKYARDS. fill sources of information are the proceedings of the various engineering societies and the engineering journals. DOCK (AS. dorce, probably connected with Gael, doyha, burdock). A name applied to those species of the section Lapathum, of the genus Rumex. whidi are not acid or only sliglitly so, and of which the (lowers are [wrfect or polyg- amous. The other species are generally called sorrel (q.v. ). The docks are mostly large, per- ennial, lierbaccous plants, natives ehietly of tem- perate climates, willi large, generally lanceolate or ovate leaves, and panicles of small, greenish flowers. They multiply rapidly by seed, liave great tap-roots, and are with difficulty eradicated from pastures. The l)est mode of dealing with them is generally found to Ijc rejieated cutting away of the leaves and slioots, by which the plants are "killed. Many of the species prefer watery places. A number are natives of the British Isles, and several of the Kuropean species have been introduced into North . ieriea, where also a numl>er of indigenous species are found, and have been troublesome weeds. Useless and even troublesome as the docks are generally esteemed, the large, astringent roots are yet capable of being beneficially employed in medicine ; and those of the greater water-dock {Rumcx Britannica) , in particular, for which the Druids entertained a superstitious veneration, are administered as an antiscorbutic, astringent, and tonic. Those of Rumex rrixpus, the yellow dock, are used in the same manner. The roots contain variable quanti- ties of tannin, and the occurrence of this in large quantities in canaigre {Rumex hymeiiosepalus) (q.v.) has been made use of in tanning fine grades of leather. The young leaves of a number of species are often used as pot-herbs. DOCKET (also, obsolete or rare forms, doc- quel, dof/uct, dogget : probably a diminutive noun from dock, to shorten, from dock. Icel. dokr, stumpy tail). In law. an otticial record of judi- cial proceedings. Originally the term was used to denote a brief sunuuary of the contents of a document upon which it was indorsed, so that its tenor might be known without complete pe- rusal. It is probable that these memoranda in time came to be transcribed in a book to which the name of docket was then applied. This was particularly the case with records of judgments, and in the United States a register of money judgments is called a docket. Under statutes giving judgments the force of liens on the real estate of the judgment debtor, it is not the rendering or the "'entry' of the judg- ment, but its docketing, which gives it Uiat elTcct. But the main use of the word docket in the United States is as the name of a list of causes before the court for trial, entered in the order in which the case is to be called, in a book kept by the clerk of the court. Such a docket is called by the practice of some courts the calendar. The docket, or calendar, is called over at the opening of the court each day — or sometimes once a week — and at the request of counsel the ease may, in the discretion of the judge, be removed to a less advanced stage on the docket, or put on that for the next term of court. A special use of the word in Kngland is for a copy of a chancery de- cree left with the proper clerk of the court for enrollment. DOCK WARRANT. A written instrument given by a duck owner to the owner of goods therein described, acknowledging their receipt and engaging to deliver them to the owner or to his assignee. It is a sjiecies of warehouse re- ceipt. It ditl'ers from a bill of lading at com- mon law in a very important respect — it is not a svmbol of the goods for which it is given, and its assigmnent and delivery, oven to a purchaser of the goods for value, does not have the legal effect of a delivery of the goods themselves, while the indor.senient and delivery of a bill of lading does. The reasons assigned for this difference are two : ( 1 ) A bill of lading is an ancient mercantile document governed bj' the rules of the law merchant, while a dock -warrant is mod- ern ami coulroUed by common-law principles. (2) A bill of lading is the representative of goods which are at sea or in the (lossession of a common carrier on land. One who transfers this document does all that it is possible for him to do to give possession of the goods to the pur- chaser. On the other hand, it is always pos- sible for parties to a sale and purchase of goods in a diK'k-owner's possession to make an actual transfer of that possession. The foregoing doctrine of the common law has been changed by the Factors Act in England, which puts dock warrants on the same footing with bills of lading. As a species of warehouse receipts they are declared by statute to be ne- gotiable in many of our States. Consult: Blackburn, Contract of /S'«/e (2d ed., London, 1885) ; Benjamin, Treatise on the Law of Sale of Personal Property (7th ed., Bennett, editor, Boston. 1899); Stevens. The Elements of Mercaniile Law (3d ed., London, 1900). DOCKYARDS, Royal. The beginnings of the present royal dockyards of Great Britain may be found in the establishment of the Portsmouth dock by order of Henry '1I. in 140.5. Before that time docks were mere temporary arrangements by which a ship was laid ashore at a suitable place. In line with his war and naval policy, Henry ^'I1I. founded several others — Deptford, in 1513, which, by the end of the reign, became the most important of all ; Woolwich, perhaps as early as 1512: and Erith, of which we hear in January, 1514. Before this time, the kings had possessed a variable numlier of ships, relying in emergencies on the Cinque Ports, which had to supply vessels in return for their privileges; now it was proposed to keeji the navy on a permanent footing. During the sixteentli century the dock- yard at Deptford continued to be the most im- portant, but under Charles I. and the Common- wealth Portsmouth surjjasscd it. Under .lames I. there was great corru])tion in the management of the dockyards, which was not rcnu'died uitil 1618. when a commission showed that the total expenditures. £53.000, might well be reduced to £30.000 (S. R. Gardiner. Uistorii of England, 160.1-','. London, 1883, ii., 2030()). They flour- ished under the Commonwealth, but declined under the Stuarts. The Duke of York (after- wards .James II.) was an excellent naval min- ister. In his management of the <lockyards he waS greatly aided by the etricient Samuel Pepys, Secretary 'of the Admiralty. In 1S05-08. as a result of a commission apjioiuted by the House of Commons, the yards were again sweepingly reformed. A uniform systein of management was established, which was afterwards somewhat
