An assault and battery is the unlawful beating of another.9 The least touching of another in anger or wilfully constitutes the offense.10

Any force, however slight, used against the person of another with an unlawful intent, amounts to a battery. The law cannot draw the line between different degrees of force, and therefore totally prohibits the first and lowest stage of it.11

Assault and battery may be committed by unlawfully striking another with the hand, fist, or with any weapon, or by pushing or kicking, or by wilfully spitting upon the person of another, or by fighting by agreement or otherwise, whether in anger or not, in some instances, - including boxing matches and prize fighting; also by the administration of poison to another intending to injure him.

Mere words though provoking and insulting, however opprobrious, will afford no justification for an assault and battery.12

6 Tarpley vs. People, 42 111., 340. 7 State vs. Godfrey, 17 Or., 300;

Chapman vs. State, 78 Ala., 463. 8 State vs. Goering, 106 Iowa, 636.

9 111. R., Chap. 38, Sec. 20, Crim. Code.

10 Hughes Cr. Law, Sec. 167.

11 3Blackstone Com., 120.

12 Hughes Cr. Law, Sec. 195.

The unlawful arrest and detention of another without his consent is an assault and battery.13 So if an officer unlawfully detains another by holding him, he is liable.14 And if an officer in making an arrest uses more force than is necessary to effect the arrest he commits the offense of assault and battery.15