The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Caput \Ca"put\ (k[=a]"p[u^]t), n.; pl. Capita
   (k[a^]p"[i^]*t[.a]). [L., the head.]
   1. (Anat.) The head; also, a knoblike protuberance or
      capitulum.
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   2. The top or superior part of a thing.
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   3. (Eng.) The council or ruling body of the University of
      Cambridge prior to the constitution of 1856.
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            Your caputs and heads of colleges.    --Lamb.
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   Caput mortuum. [L., dead head.] (Old Chem.) The residuum
      after distillation or sublimation; hence, worthless
      residue.
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Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856):

CAPITA, or PER CAPITA. By heads. An expression of frequent occurrence in
laws regulating the distribution of the estates of persons dying intestate.
When all the persons entitled to shares in the distribution are of the same
degree of kindred to the deceased person, (e.g. when all are grandchildren,)
and claim directly from him in their own right and not through an
intermediate relation, they take per capita, that is, equal shares, or share
and share alike. But when they are of different degrees of kindred, (e. g.
some the children, others the grandchildren or the great grandchildren of
the, deceased,) those more remote take er stirpem or per stirpes, that is,
they take respectively the shares their parents (or other relation standing
in the same degree with them of the surviving kindred entitled) who are in
the nearest degree of kindred to the intestate,) would have taken had they
respectively survived the intestate. Reeves' Law of Descent, Introd. xxvii.;
also 1 Rop. on Leg. 126, 130. See Per Capita; Per Stirpes; Stirpes;