68o 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



Legislature than is the title of the owner to 

 his lands or bonds. Until about a century ago 

 this principle was recognized and acted on 

 in England, where perpetual copyright in 

 printed books was not denied till 1774, when 

 the House of Lords, following the empty 

 declamation of Lord Camden instead of the 

 sound opinions of Lord Mansfield, Sir Wil- 

 liam Blackstone, and other learned jurists, 

 decided, on an equal division of the judges, 

 that authors had no rights in their pub- 

 lished works excepting what Parliament 

 might choose to give them. This decision 

 has since controlled the law in England 

 and the United States, but, as Mr. Drone 

 forcibly maintains, it was " contrary not 

 only to right and justice, but to the true 

 purpose and meaning of the statute " (of 

 Anne) " as determined by settled rules of 

 construction." 



The question whether the unlicensed 

 abridgment of a copyrighted book is pirati- 

 cal, is one which is likely to be brought 

 home to any author of an elaborate work. 

 n the law on this point is governed by loose 

 judicial dicta and doubtful precedents, hon- 

 est authors have little reason to hope for 

 protection against piracy. But Mr. Drone, 

 following his plan of determining the law by 

 governing principles, shows that the unau- 

 thorized abridgment of a copyrighted work 

 is piratical. After a thorough discussion 

 of the subject, he thus sums up the whole 

 matter: "A genuine abridgment embodies 

 the substantial results contained in the 

 work abridged, and, if unauthorized, is dam- 

 aging to the author of the original. The 

 question of piracy is determined by the 

 application of the established principle that 

 no one without authority shall take a mate- 

 rial part of another's work to the injury of 

 the person entitled to protection. It is set- 

 tled that piracy may be committed by tak- 

 ing a few pages from a copyrighted book ; 

 to hold that the substance of the whole may 

 be lawfully appropriated, if published in the 

 form of an abridgment, is as absurd as it 

 is inconsistent and unjust." Under the 

 head of blasphemous publications, he con- 

 siders the question whether a work hostile 

 to religion is entitled to copyright. Lord 

 Eldon refused an injunction against the 

 piratical publication of Sir William Law- 

 rence's " Lectures on Physiology, Zoology, 



and the Natural History of Man," on the 

 ground that the original contahied passages 

 which " impugned the doctrines of the im- 

 materiality and immortality of the soul." 

 For similar reasons, the same judge refused 

 to protect Byron's " Cain." Mr. Drone crit- 

 icises these decisions as being unsound and 

 illiberal, and maintains that even in Eng- 

 land, where the law on this subject is more 

 stringent than in the United States, there is 

 no good reason why protection should be 

 denied to publications in which the preva- 

 lent doctrines relating to religion are doubted 

 or denied with moderation and sincerity. 



Many other important and interesting 

 questions are ably discussed in language 

 which is singularly concise, clear, and free 

 from legal verbiage. The work will doubt- 

 less take its place as the standard authority 

 on the subject of which it treats. 



Ferxs in their Homes and ours. By John 



Robinson. S. E. Cassino, Publisher. 



Naturalists' Agency, Salem, Pp. 178. 



Price, $1.50. Illustrated. 



This is the first American work devoted 

 exclusively to the cultivation of ferns, and 

 it is intended to serve as a guide to those 

 in this country who are interested in the 

 subject and would like to know how 

 ferns may best be cultivated. The spir- 

 it of the book is well expressed on its 

 last page in the following words : " The 

 writer will not claim that the fern-mania, 

 which may be traced from its beginning 

 across the ocean to its recent development 

 in this country, is a hobby superior to most 

 others ; but he does claim that, properly 

 guided, it can be the means of stimulating 

 pure and healthy exercise and study ; and 

 that, whether pursued in a scientific way 

 or only as a pastime, it can in any event do 

 no harm, but may be the cause of great and 

 permanent good. If this little book shall 

 in any way conduce to the love of the grace- 

 ful plants of whose culture it treats, or aid 

 any beginner in the study of the ferns, the 

 writer will feel that another pleasure has 

 been added to that which he has already 

 experienced in its composition." 



As an example of the abihty of the 

 author to carry out his purpose, we quote 

 the following from Chapter V., entitled 

 " How to collect Ferns for Cultivation." 

 Premising that the desire to collect ferns is 



