The Hundred of Pitney is one of the 40 historical Hundreds in the ceremonial county of Somerset, dating from before the Norman conquest during the Anglo-Saxon era although exact dates are unknown. Each hundred had a'fyrd', which acted as the local defence force and a court, responsible for the maintenance of the frankpledge system, they formed a unit for the collection of taxes. The role of the hundred court was described in the Dooms of King Edgar; the name of the hundred was that of its meeting-place. The Pitney hundred grew in the 16th century from a neighbouring borough; the Hundred of Pitney consisted of the ancient parishes of: Langport Eastover and Pitney. It covered an area of 3,690 acres; the importance of the hundred courts declined from the seventeenth century. By the 19th century several different single-purpose subdivisions of counties, such as poor law unions, sanitary districts, highway districts sprang up, filling the administrative role played by parishes and hundreds. Although the Hundreds have never been formally abolished, their functions ended with the establishment of county courts in 1867 and the introduction of districts by the Local Government Act 1894

Oskar Kraus was a Czech philosopher and jurist. Oskar Kraus, who converted from the Jewish to the Protestant faith, was born in Prague, the son of Hermann Kraus and Clara Reitler-Eidlitz. In 1899 he married Bertha Chitz. In 1890 he began to study jurisprudence and philosophy under Friedrich Jodl and Anton Marty, who introduced him into Franz Brentano's philosophy. Kraus made his Doctor of Philosophy in 1895 and attained the habilitation in philosophy in 1902. In 1909 he became Professor in 1916 Professor ordinarius. After the Germans occupied Czechoslovakia in 1939, Kraus was put into a concentration camp. At the University Edinburgh he held Gifford Lectures in 1941. In 1942 he died. Family: Wally Oskarovich Kraus — son, died in an accident Yuriy Voldemarovich Kraus During World War I, Kraus worked on topics in relation to war and ethics and wrote important works in the field of public international law. Influenced by Brentano, Kraus developed an a priori value theory, formulated in opposition to Marxian value theory.

He applied this method on economics. Based on his ideas on law and duty he developed a juristic hermeneutics in the field of jurisprudence, criticized historism and positivism. Kraus was known for his criticism of the theory of relativity, according to him an accumulation of "absurdities" and "mathematical fictions". Das Bedürfnis. Ein Beitrag zur beschreibenden Psychologie, Leipzig 1894 Zur Theorie des Wertes. Eine Bentham-Studie, Halle a. d. Saale: Niemeyer 1901 Die Lehre von Lob, Tadel und Strafe bei Aristoteles, Halle a. d. Saale 1905 Die aristotelische Werttheorie in ihren Beziehungen zu den modernen Psychologenschule, in: Zeitschrift für die gesamte Staatswissenschaft 61, 573-92. Über eine altüberlieferte Mißdeutung der epideiktischen Redegattung bei Aristoteles, Halle a. d. Saale 1905 Neue Studien zur Aristotelischen Rhetorik, insbesondere über das genos epideiktikon, Halle a. d. Saale 1907 Das Recht zu strafen. Eine rechtsphilosophische Untersuchung, Stuttgart 1911 Platons Hippias Minor. Versuch einer Prag 1913 Martys Leben und Werke.

Eine Skizze, in: Josef Eisenmeier, Alfred Kastil und Oskar Kraus: Anton Marty, Gesammelte Schriften. Bd. I, 1. Abteilung, Halle a. d. Saale 1916 Der Krieg, die Friedensfrage und die Philosophen. Ein Vortrag, Prag 1917 Franz Brentano. Zur Kenntnis seines Lebens und seiner München 1919 Zur Debatte über die Gestaltpsychologie. Einige kritische Darlegungen, Prag 69 233-42. Offene Briefe an Albert Einstein und Max von Laue über die gedanklichen Grundlagen der speziellen und allgemeinen Relativitätstheorie, Wien 1925 Der Machtgedanke und die Friedensidee in der Philosophie der Engländer Bacon und Bentham, Leipzig 1926 Albert Schweitzer. Sein Werk und seine Weltanschauung, Berlin 1926/1929 Bertrand Russells Analyse des Geistes, in: Archiv für die gesamte Psychologie 75, 289-314, auch in: Wege und Abwege der Philosophie, Vorträge und Abhandlungen von Oskar Kraus, Prag: Calve 1934, 37-61. Wege und Abwege der Philosophie. Vorträge und Abhandlungen, Prag 1934 Die Werttheorien. Geschichte und Kritik, Brünn / Wien / Leipzig: Rohrer 1937 Albert Schweitzer.

His Work and his Philosophy, übers. v. E. G. McCalman, eingeführt v. A. D. Lindsay, London 1944 Works by or about Oskar Kraus in libraries