from
Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856)
EXTREMIS. When a person is sick beyond the hope of recovery, and near death,
he is said to be in extremism.
2. A will made in this condition, if made without undue influence, by a
person of sound mind, is valid.
3. The declarations of persons in extremis, when made with a full
consciousness of approaching death, ate admissible in evidence when the
death of the person making them is the subject of the charge, and the
circumstances of the death the subject of such declarations. 2 B. & C. 605
S. C. 9 Eng. C. L. Rep..196; and see 15 John. 286; 1 John. Rep. 159; 2
John. R. 31; 7 John. 95; 2 Car. Law. Repos. 102; 5 whart, R. 396-7.