278 Notices respecting New Books. 



too favourable of the future ; and the spirit and energy 

 Avhich supply the inventive talent are peculiarly liable to this 

 species of self-deception. 



" It will be seen in the catalogue, that a great variety of 



Eatents have been extended to objects connected v/ith those 

 ranches of the trade and manufactures of this country 

 which are of the first importance to commercial prosperity. 

 No less than thirteen patents in a very short period have 

 been assigned for improvements on the steam-engine, most 

 of which would have been probably suppressed if the legal 

 discussion on th^' patent of Messrs. Boulton and Watt, for 

 an improvement on the same invention, had not completely 

 decided the question on the competencv and validity of pa- 

 tents for improvements, whenever those improvements can 

 be deemed material and useful. 



" The mere inspection of the following list will show 

 how necessary it is that patentees should be inlbrmed of the 

 rules laid down in the Law of Patents. It will be seen how 

 great a portion of the grants appear by their titles to be ex- 

 tended not to any piece of mechanism, utensil, or mamifac- 

 ture, but to a process, viethod, or principle, for which no 

 patent can be valid. It is, however, some consolation to 

 reflect, that what is stated as such is often the application 

 of a method, process, or principle, in some substantial form, 

 for which a patent can be maintained. It is now under- 

 stood that where this construction can be given it will be 

 applied in the most beneficial sense for the patentee; and 

 that no advantage will be taken of minute verbal criticisms 

 to render the royal grant nugatory, and to disappoint the 

 inventor of his equitable reward." 



Useful Hints to those who are afflicted with Biiptures ; on 

 the Nature, Cure, and Consequences of the Disease; and 

 of the empirical Practices of the present Day. By 

 T. Sheldrake. 



For the present work the public is indebted to the author 

 of a very useful work entitled " A Practical Essay on the 

 Club-foot and other Distortions of the Legs and Feet of 

 Children," which has been well received. The present 

 fippears to us to be equally useful, and well deserving of 

 the attention of such as are afflicted with ruptures, or have 

 relations in that situation. 



LI I. Pro- 



