THE PROTECTION OF SCIENCE BY PATENT 557 



tive enlargement of the scope of our patent law infused with 

 a similar spirit of equity. As regards Parliamentary action, 

 although nearly three centuries have elapsed since the Statute 

 of Monopolies was passed, no statute has been brought to bear 

 whereby patent protection has been conferred on aught but 

 " manufactures." A discovery by its very nature is not, it is 

 true, capable of protection. Thought is free, and there is no 

 monopoly in knowledge. A monopoly could be granted only 

 for improved arts or practices the outcome of discovery. 



Subject to this natural limitation the question may now well 

 be asked whether there is any valid reason why a more generous 

 measure of protection should not be accorded to the scientific 

 worker. Why, for instance, should not an individual receive 

 patent protection who discovers a method of breeding a rot- 

 proof sheep, who originates new varieties of plants and cereals, 

 or who invents new methods of fruit-culture, matters of no less 

 moment in view of the ever-increasing demands of the community 

 than are the more orthodox subjects of patents. Is not the man 

 who advances public health by the application of some scientific 

 or medical discovery as much entitled to a monopoly as, let 

 us say, one who improves a mustard-pot ? Surely the ques- 

 tion only requires to be formulated. Justice and expediency 

 concur in requiring extension of the law whereby originators 

 may receive a reward adequate to the importance of their dis- 

 coveries, or, at any rate, proportioned to their public use. If 

 deserving scientists are to be protected as regards researches 

 which result in amelioration of the conditions of living, the 

 11 new manufacture " of the statute of James I. should be amplified 

 and protection granted to any other new practice which is 

 originated by the scientific mind and is of utility to the public. 

 In other words, letters patent ought not to be confined to 

 manufactures, but ought to be granted in respect of every 

 invention of any new and useful art founded upon scientific 

 discovery. 



(3) Suggested Provisions for Amending the Law. — The fol- 

 lowing provisions, which would require the authority of an 

 Act of Parliament, appear to be the simplest means by which 

 the existing patent system could be modified so as to remove 

 the disabilities which are dealt with in the preceding pages. 

 Their effect would be (1) for a limited period to attach to the 

 reading of a paper before a learned society the measure of 



