The present bankrupt act43 provides that the trustee of a bankrupt, upon his appointment and qualification, shall be vested by operation of law with the title of the bankrupt, as of the date he was adjudged a bankrupt, to all property which, prior to the filing of the petition, he could by any means have transferred, or which might have been levied upon and sold under judicial process against him. The title to the bankrupt's land, therefore, as well as other property, passes, as it were, by force of the adjudication of bankruptcy, to the trustee subsequently appointed. Previous bankrupt acts, as well as the insolvency statutes of the various states, have contained similar provisions transferring the property of the bankrupt or insolvent to the trustee, for. the purpose of distribution among creditors.44

43. Act July 1, 1898 (30 Stat. 565, Sec. 70a).

44. 16 A. & E. Encyc. Law 721.