MISCELLANEOUS COMMUNICATIONS. 163 



Patent-Law Grievance. — In the March number of the Magazine of 

 Popular Science, we find the following observations on the Letters- Patent 

 Law : " The inventors of this country, and the introducers of inventions of 

 other countries into this, were obliged to pay down to the attorney-general 

 and other agents, &c., of the government, during the past year, above 



£42,000 What did the attorney-general effect, in return for this vast and 



oppressive extortion ? The penalties inflicted on the inventive genius of Bri- 

 tain during the present year, up to the 25th ult., in the shape of government 

 stamps and fees on patents, amount to more than £6000 I" We hope and 

 trust the bill introduced by Mr. Mackinnon and Mr. Baines, " to alter and 

 amend the Patent Laws, and for better securing to individuals the benefit of 

 their Inventions," will this session receive the royal assent. The thanks of 

 scientific men are eminently due to the editor of the very ably conducted 

 Periodical above quoted, for his continued exertions in exposing a system of 

 extortion which is a positive disgrace to the legislature. 



Cock Fighting. — It would appear, by an announcement in the York 

 Herald, that the demoralizing sport of Cock fighting is still but too preva- 

 lent in this country. Now we do not object to Cock fighting on the score of 

 cruelty to the birds — for, as Mowbray justly observes, they would fight as 

 fiercely were they to meet in a desert, as when surrounded by hundreds of 

 spectators — but for its demoralizing effects, which must produce the worst 

 results to those addicted to such sports. Every country gentleman ought 

 to discourage these barbarities as much as possible in his own neighbourhood ; 

 and ought, further, to supply in their stead rational employments, calculated 

 to improve the moral and intellectual faculties of the people. 



The Bramble Finch (Fringilla montana) in Yorkshire. — The Bram- 

 ble Finch has been somewhat abundant in the neighbourhood of Doncaster; 

 we have more than once met with flocks of ten or twelve at Campsall, and 

 according to the observations of others, several have been seen in the same 

 district. 



Song of the Grey "Wagtail (Motacilla cinerea, Will.) — In the Natu- 

 ralist, Mr. Neville Wood has recorded the fact that the Grey Wagtail pos . 

 sesses a song. Ardent as I profess to be in the pursuit of Nature, and espe- 

 cially of the habits of our native birds, it may seem strange that I had never 

 previously noticed the song of this amusing little bird ; nor, I believe, have 

 other ornithologists had better fortune. Since, however, I have frequently 

 heard and enjoyed its sprightly notes. Even Mr. Wood, at the time that he 

 wrote his interesting and popular volume on British Song Birds, was not 

 aware of the circumstance. — N. C. Percival, M.D., Leamington, January 

 5, 1837. 



The Academie de Misdecine of Paris and its Decision on Homceo- 



PATHY We perceive, by the fourth number of the British and Foreign 



Medical Review, for January, 1837, that the French Academy of Medi- 

 cine (whose verdict on Phrenology is recorded in our last number) has 

 recently been called upon to decide the important question of Homoeopathy. 

 The system was denounced as a piece of quackery which ought to be speedily 

 put down. The only comment we shall here make on this decision is contain- 

 ed in this simple query — Had the academicians, previously to the solution of 

 the question, impartially studied the system, either in theory or practice ? — 

 Eds. 



