432 



PASTORAL THEOLOGY PATENT 



the name of Rilmilr Komanum, except Uiat this has 

 received the papal revision and confirmation. Thus 

 the pattorale of the Roman Catholic is a written 

 code, while that of the Protestant minister consists 

 of principles addressed merely to his understanding. 



PASTORAL THEOLOGY. Sec Pastorale. 



PATAGONIA ; a vast country, occupying the 

 southern extremity of South America, and extending 

 from lat. 35 38' S., where it borders on the pro- 

 vince of Buenos Ayres and Chile, to cape Froward, 

 on the straits of Magellan, in lat. 53 54' S., a dis- 

 tance of about 1100 miles. Little is known of this 

 extensive region, which has not been colonized by 

 any European nation, and has never been thoroughly 

 explored by travellers. It was discovered by Ma- 

 gellan in 1519, and was visited by Byron in 1764, 

 and by \Vallis in 1766. In 1782, the coasts were 

 surveyed by the Spaniards, whose chief attention 

 was, however, directed to the examination of the 

 straits of Magellan : previous to that time, it was 

 uncertain whether there was not a navigable channel 

 farther north than those straits. In 18261830, 

 captain King examined the coasts of Patagonia and 

 Tierra del Fuego, and corrected the errors made by 

 tlie Spaniards in their survey. The western coast 

 he found to be bordered by a range of islands, in the 

 rear of that usually laid down on the maps, and equal 

 to it in breadth. Tierra del Fuego was also found 

 to be intersected by a navigable channel, which cap- 

 tain King called Beagle channel. (See his Observa- 

 tions on the Geography of the southern Extremity of 

 South America, Tierra del Fuego, &c., read before 

 the geographical society of London in May, 1831, 

 and published in their Journal for 1831.) The Andes, 

 in this part of the continent, are about 3000 feet high 

 on an average, and the deep inlets which form the 

 numerous archipelagos and peninsulas of the western 

 coast, penetrate quite to their base. The climate, as 

 might be expected, from the high latitude of the 

 country, is rigorous ; yet the plants and birds of the 

 warmer regions are found here. The natives bear 

 among themselves the names of Moluches, or fPar- 

 riors, and Puelches, or Easterns. One of the tribes 

 of the former, from their inhabiting Arauco, has re- 

 ceived from the Spaniards the name Araucanos. (See 

 Araucanians, and Ercilla.) One tribe of the Puel- 

 ches is the people known to voyagers under the name 

 of Patagonians. They are a nomad people, and 

 wander from the straits of Magellan to the pampas 

 (q. v.) of Buenos Ayres, a distance of about 1000 

 miles. They are often engaged in hostilities with 

 the Spaniards, and are formidable by their courage 

 and numbers. " They are a large-bodied people," 

 says Falkner, who resided in the country forty years, 

 and wrote the best account which we have of the 

 interior (Description of Patagonia, 1774), " but I 

 never heard of that gigantic race which others have 

 mentioned, though I have seen persons of all the 

 tribes of southern Indians." From Chile to the Ma- 

 gellanic strait, a great part of the country seems to 

 be bleak, mountainous, and barren. The interior, 

 in many places, produces good timber. Much of 

 the country near the western coast is dry and barren, 

 and uninhabited. Deer, guanacos, wild horses, pu- 

 mas, jaguars, ostriches, and other animals, are found 

 in Patagonia. See South America. 



PATAM, or PATNAM; the ending of several 

 Hindoo names for places, signifying town; for exam- 

 ple, Seringapatam (city of Vishnoo, or Srinanga.) 



PATAPSCO ; a river of Maryland, which runs 

 south-east into Chesapeake bay, between North point 

 and Bodkin's point. It is navigable to Fell's point, 

 in Baltimore, fourteen miles, for ships drawing 

 eighteen feet of water. 



PATENT, in law, is the exclusive right of using 



and vending a certain composition or combination of 

 matter, as a medicine or a machine. This right is 

 not derived from the law of nature, as the whole 

 field of inventions and improvements is open to all 

 men, and one cannot monopolize a part of it by prior 

 discoveries. By the common law of England, mo- 

 nopolies were declared to be generally void, and pa- 

 tents for new inventions, being a species of mono- 

 polies, would, according to this doctrine, be void by 

 that law. But they seem to form an exception u"> 

 this rule ; for it was held that the king could confer 

 on the inventor of any useful manufacture or art the 

 power of using it for a reasonable time. But the. 

 law of patents, as it now stands in England, rests 

 upon a statute of 21 Jac. I. c. iii. and in the United 

 States of America, on statute Feb. 21, 1793, and 

 April 17, 1800. In France, until 1790, inventors 

 were generally obliged to keep their discoveries 

 secret, in order to secure to themselves a small part 

 of the benefit of them. In an early period of the 

 French revolution, a law was passed in favour of 

 new inventions, formed on the basis of the English 

 statute. The French law of Jan. 7, 1810, declares 

 that every discovery or new invention, in every spe- 

 cies of useful industry, is the property of its author. 

 In England, patents are now, as they were before the 

 statute of James I., granted by the crown. Letters 

 patent are made out by the secretary of state in the 

 name of the United States of America, bearing teste 

 of the president. 



What is patentable ? In general, any invention of 

 a new and useful art, machine, manufacture, or com- 

 position of matter not known or used before, or any 

 new and useful improvement in any art, machine, or 

 manufacture, or composition of matter. The inven- 

 tion must be new. In England, a manufacture newly 

 brought into the kingdom, from beyond sea, though 

 not new there, is allowed by the statute of James ; 

 because that statute allows a patent for any new manu- 

 facture within this realm. By the patent law of the 

 United States of America, if the thing patented was 

 not originally discovered by the patentee, but had 

 been in use, or had been described in some public 

 work anterior to the supposed discovery by the pa- 

 tentee, or if he has surreptitiously obtained a patent 

 for the discovery of another person, the patent is 

 void. In France, by the law of Jan. 7, 1810, who- 

 ever introduces into that kingdom a foreign discovery 

 shall enjoy the same advantages as if he were the 

 inventor. In England, the publisher of an invention 

 is entitled to a patent, whether he be the inventor or 

 not. The subject of a patent must be vendible, in 

 contradistinction to any thing that is learned by prac- 

 tice. The invention must be material and useful : 

 thus the substitution of one material for another is 

 insufficient to support a patent ; as of brass hoops to 

 a barrel instead of wooden ones. Se there cannot 

 be a patent for making in one piece what before was 

 made in two. But if one elementary thing be sub- 

 stituted for another, as if that be done by a tube 

 which was before done by a ring, a patent for the 

 improvement would be good. It must not be hurtful 

 to trade, nor generally inconvenient, nor mischievous, 

 nor immoral, as ail invention to poison people, or to 

 promote debauchery. Patents for improvements are 

 valid, as for an improved steam-engine ; but if the 

 improvements cannot be used without the engine 

 which is protected by a patent, they must wait the 

 expiration of the patent. But a new patent may be 

 taken out for the improvement by itself. A combi- 

 nation of old materials, by which a new effect is pro- 

 duced, may be the subject of a patent. The effect 

 may consist either in the production of a new article, 

 or in making an old one in a better manner, in a 

 shorter time, or at a cheaper rate. A patent may be 



