DECEMBER 3, 1897.] 
and the jacquard or perforated paper so pro- 
duced has enabled the casting and setting into 
lines and galleys of the finished matter pre- 
sented. ; 
THE new rules of the United States Patent 
Office, which go into effect on January Ist, 
contain some important alterations. Hereafter 
no invention can be patented if it has been 
described two years or more before the filing 
of the application, or more than seven months 
after a foreign patent has been allowed. On 
the other hand, the duration of an American 
patent is not limited by its expiration in other 
countries. 
¥ THE South African Republic has passed an 
amendment to their patent laws which is an in- 
genious method of collecting revenue. Only a 
small fee is required for granting the patent, 
but for each period for which it is extended an 
additional payment is required. Thus, for ex- 
ample, from eleven years to the limit of four- 
teen years $1,000 is required. 
A DEPUTATION from the Manchester Chamber 
of Commerce was received by the President 
of the British Board of Trade on November 
17th, the object of which was to call attention 
to the fact that patent rights were granted to 
foreign subjects in Great Britain for inventions 
which cannot be patented in theirown. It was 
stated that very serious injury was inflicted 
upon British industrial interests in consequence 
of this inequality, and it was asked that the 
Patents Act of 1883 should be amended so as to 
remove the inequality, and that the duration 
of any British patent granted to a foreigner 
should not exceed the term of his patent in his 
owncountry. The deputation also desired that, 
as complementary to this amendment, the 
British representative at the forthcoming con- 
gress of the international convention for the 
protection of industrial property, to be held in 
Brussels next month, should be instructed to 
support the propositions for the alteration of 
the rules of the convention, which would permit 
the amending legislation in question. 
Mr. CHARLES T. RiTcHIE, President of the 
British Board of Trade, in a speech before the 
Croydon Chamber of Commerce on November 
23d, is reported to have said that Great Britain 
SCIENCE. 
843 
had more to fear from the United States than 
from Germany in industrial competition. ‘‘ The 
facts are serious,’’ he continued, ‘‘and call 
upon us for the exercise of all our powers to 
enable us to maintain our position in the com- 
mercial world. There is no doubt the United 
States are executing orders which ought to be 
executed here. As we all know, an American 
firm obtained the contract for the Central 
Underground Railway (of London), as its bid 
was lower than those of the English concerns 
and it could deliver the supplies three months 
ahead of the British tenders. Many important 
Continental orders have gone to America. The 
same is to be said of Egypt and Japan, where 
the Americans are doing work that Englishmen 
should have done.”’ 
THE conductors of the London Academy have 
devised a successful plan of advertisement in 
selecting a British Academy of Letters and its 
forty ‘Immortals.’ With the exception of two 
or three superannuated giants and halJf-a-dozen 
contemporary men of letters, the list seems to 
be chiefly remarkable as an exhibition of the 
mediocrity of British literature. The only ex- 
cuse for mentioning the proposed Academy in 
this place, however, is to call attention to the 
fact that it does not contain the name of a 
single man of science. It is probably true that 
there is now in Great Britain no man of science 
who is also a man of letters as Huxley was; 
still if philologists such as Professor Skeat and 
Professor Jebb, and historians such as Bishop 
Stubbs and the Rev. Dr. Gasquet, are included 
among the forty Olympians there seems to be no 
reason why men of science such as Lord Kelvin, 
Professor Foster, Professor Sidgwick and Mr. 
Galton should be excluded. 
THE fiftieth anniversary of Professor Vir- 
chow’s joining the teaching staff of Berlin 
University was celebrated on November 6th. 
The Lancet states that in 1847 Professor Vir- 
chow, who had previously belonged to the 
Army Medical Staff, was appointed a privat- 
docent at the University, but political considera- 
tions were all-powerful after the revolutionary 
troubles of 1848, and as he was known to hold 
democratic opinions he was under the necessity, 
of leaving Berlin and accepting a professorship 
