ceding the index, showing where each act of a public nature passed since the enactment of the Code, is inserted in this work, and in this table the title of each act and the date of its taking effect, whether by publication or otherwise, is given, so that these matters are made readily accessible in such few cases as they may be of importance, without cumbering the body of the book with them.

of

The annotations are the result of a careful examination, case by case, the opinions of the state Supreme Court, including all those rendered prior to the March term, 1880. By the kindness of the Reporter, the author was enabled to examine the proof-sheets of the fiftieth and fifty-first volumes of reports, just issued, before finally arranging his matter under the different sections, so that the references to cases included in these volumes, as also those to cases no yet reported, will be found incorporated in their proper connection. Such of the opinions of the United States Circuit Court for this district, embraced in the volumes of Dillon's Reports, as bear upon the statutes of the state, are included in the notes. It has also been thought proper to refer to, or quote from, the report of the code commissioners wherever it throws any light upon the intention with which new provisions, or changes in old ones, were proposed. In addition, the notes contain a large number of crossreferences to other sections and notes, showing in each case the point to which they relate.

The statements of points decided are made from an examination of the opinions themselves, without depending upon head-notes, indexes, digests, or tables of statutes cited. This was believed to be the only sure way to find all the references valuable for the special purpose of the work. The citations are not confined to cases in which the various sections are construed, or specially referred to, but include all which bear upon subjects regulated by statute, and upon questions of practice under the Code.

The aim has been, first, to collect under each section all the cases pertinent thereto, and, secondly, to state clearly the very point, or prints, considered in each case. The notes are, as far as possible, so arranged as to form a connected, consistent and distinct enunciation of the principles embodied in the decisions, and when the cases are numerous and relate to different subjects they are arranged under appropriate headings.

The state Constitution is fully annotated, and the effort is made, by indexing it in connection with the statutes and making cross-references to it under the various sections relating to subjects to which it also refers, to render it more generally accessible than it has been heretofore.

Among other preliminary matter at the beginning of the first volume, are given tables of corresponding sections, showing where each section of the Code of 1851, the Revision, and the session laws subsequent to the Revision and prior to the Code of 1873, if still retained, or if not, then where the corresponding provision, if any, is to be found in the present Code. The marginal notes to the text have also been enlarged so as to include referer ces te

corresponding sections of the Code of 1851, and much fuller references to the session laws and the Revision. These two features, it is believed, will greatly facilitate the investigation of the history of the various statutory provisions, and be a valuable assistance in the matter of determining what the law was under which prior decisions have been made, and how far they are applicable to the law as it now stands.

At the end of the second volume, will be found a comprehensive index to the text, including Code, subsequent acts, and state Constitution, in which are also given full references to points stated in the notes, so far as they are not covered by the references to the sections under which they are placed. This index has been prepared with great care, in view of the well known importance of such a feature in a work of this kind, and upon a different plan from that heretofore adopted in state editions of the statutes, and it is hoped that by greatly increasing the number of cross-references and by combining in one index the references to statutes and notes, all parts of the work will be rendered readily accessible.

In carrying out the plan thus stated, the author has spared neither time nor labor in the endeavor to make the work thorough, accurate and complete; the measure of his success he leaves to the judgment of his brethren in the profession.

DES MOINES, May, 1880.

TABLES OF CORRESPONDING SECTIONS.

[IN these tables an asterisk (*) indicates that the section or sections.
following it take the place of, but do not properly correspond to, the ones
opposite which they are placed.]

CODE OF 1851.

The following table gives, in the first column, consecutively, the numbers
of the sections of the Code of 1851, and in the second, the corresponding
sections of the Code of 1873: