Sentence:  Seven spills of paper of precisely equal length were given round, and after an interval collected. Had any of them been dimidiated, <WSD>tertiated</WSD> or even<!-- page break in source --> decimated, the proposed election was void. 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  (Reduce) by one (third); (especially), (kill) one third of (a (group) of (people)).