6i8 



NATURE 



[October 25. 1900 



"blind-cord" action could be set up enough to be a 

 primary agent in the transportation of sediment. 



Quitting this very debatable question, we heartily con- 

 gratulate Mr. Jukes-Browne and the Survey on this 

 instalment of a complete memoir on the Cretaceous rocks 

 of England. The possession of a synoptic view of any 

 one formation is a great boon to geologists, as it saves 

 them from the labour of hunting through a number of 

 separate Survey memoirs. In future it might perhaps be 

 well to shorten those explanatory of the maps by 

 reserving all broader question for volumes like the 

 present one. In this we note with especial pleasure 

 the inclusion of chapters written by a geologist 

 without any official position as an indication that 

 the Survey now welcomes external help. The "get- 

 up" of the volume shows improvement, but there is 

 room for more. The illustrations, for instance, suffer 

 from the thinness of the paper, through which the type 

 can be seen. This defect spoils an excellent outline 

 sketch on p. 152. A few plates, however, are printed on 

 separate paper, and yet the book is issued at a moderate 

 price. Difficult as it notoriously is to overcome the love 

 of saving a ha'porth of tar so characteristic of Treasury 

 officials, we wish the Director-General still greater 

 success in persuading them to come nearer to the level 

 of the volumes issued by the Geological Survey of the 

 United States. T. G. Bonney. 



THE PRINCIPLES OF PA TENT LA W. 

 The Law and Practice relating to Letters Patent for 



Inventions. By R. W. Wallace and J. B. Williamson. 



Pp. Ixv -V 922. (London : W. Clowes and Sons, Ltd., 

 1900.) 

 'T^HE subject of inventions is always an interesting one 

 ^ whether to the manufacturer or to the man of science, 

 nearly all new improvements in commercial chemistry or 

 mechanics being, in these days of vigorous competition, 

 sought to be protected by Letters Patent. Whether the 

 English system of patent law is entirely satisfactory in all 

 its details is a matter on which there are many opinions, 

 and the Committee now inquiring into this may p ossibly 

 suggest some alterations being made. 



As a guide to the existing state of the law up to the 

 most recent decisions in the Courts, Messrs. Wallace and 

 Williamson have issued this volume, which may be 

 called a treatise rather than a text-book. The arrange- 

 ment and division of the subject is clear ; starting from 

 the granting of the Letters Patent, the reader is carried on 

 to what is required of an inventor to render the grant 

 valid and up to the petition for extension. Very little 

 attention is given to the past history of the law, only 

 a few pages being devoted to the well-known cases 

 of the early part of the seventeenth century and a few 

 remarks made on the history of claims. On the difficult 

 subject, in which every discoverer of some new process 

 must be interested, of what is necessary to constitute a 

 patentable invention, the authors have not attempted to 

 lay down any definition of their own, but have devoted 

 two chapters to a careful collection of the important 

 decisions on the point. In fact, throughout ths book 

 NO. 1617. VOL. 62] 



there is given the material for forming an opinion rather 

 than definitions. 



For those who have not a well-stocked library of law- 

 books there is the very great advantage that this volume 

 gives verbatim extracts of nearly every important case, 

 and even for those who have the books at command it 

 will often save them the trouble of hunting up the 

 passages they most often need. For those profession- 

 ally interested in the subject there is a full and accurate 

 account of the various steps in an action for infringement, 

 which is very clearly set out ; and after 600 pages of 

 text there are some 250 of appendices containing the 

 various statutes, together with forms and precedents for 

 almost every conceivable case. 



The principles upon which the specifications and 

 claims should be drafted are adequately dealt with, and the 

 question of amendment is gone into. There is a short 

 chapter on the procedure on petitions for compulsory 

 licenses, which procedure, curiously enough, does not 

 appear to have attracted the attention of those who would 

 be likely to benefit by it until within the last two or 

 three years. 



The printing of the work has been well done in large 

 type and on good paper, the headings to the various 

 paragraphs being sufficiently clear. A conspicuous 

 feature of the work is the full index and the table of 

 cases, which gives with each case the date of the decision 

 and the subject-matter of the patent decided on. The 

 book may confidently be recommended to any one 

 desiring a complete account of the principles upon which 

 our system of patent law is founded, as well as to those 

 who constantly require a trustworthy book of reference. 



HIS TOPICAL CHE MIS TR V. 

 Lectures on the History of the Development of Chemistry 

 since the Time of Lavoisier. By Dr. A. Ladenburg. 

 Translated from the second German edition by Leonard 

 Dobbin, Ph.D., with additions and corrections by the 

 author. Pp. xvi -f- 373. (Edinburgh : Published for 

 the Alembic Club by W. F. Clay. London : Simpkin, 

 Marshall, Hamilton, Kent and Co., Ltd., 1900.J 



THE small knot of chemists in Edinburgh who con- 

 stitute the Alembic Club have already earned the 

 thanks of chemists by placing at the disposal of English 

 readers their valuable reprints of important chemical 

 memoirs, a series which it is hoped may run on long 

 and, if possible, at an increasing rate. The present 

 volume is a more ambitious undertaking, being the 

 translation of a substantial work which has long enjoyed 

 much favour in Germany as a lucid and not too bulky 

 account of the development of modern chemistry. 



English chemical literature is not rich in original his- 

 torical writing, though there are at least one or two 

 British chemists who may be looked to with confidence 

 for the occasional production of a scholarly and readable 

 contribution. Going back a long way, it may be said 

 that Thomas Thomson's " History " is inferior to no book 

 of the kind published since — in respect to literary style 

 and readableness. But in those days the science was 

 narrower, and it was well within the ability of one man to 

 do justice to the whole subject. The exhaustive historical 



