587 



inventors would have to take out three patents. The expense 

 of a patent was greater in Ireland than in any other state in 

 the world ; and it arose not necessarily from the nature of the 

 thing, but from the mode of paying certain public officers. 

 This defect in the law of patents was a very great impediment 

 in the way of inventors receiving the just reward of then' ex- 

 ertions. It resulted from the supposition that patents were 

 injurious to the community, and that the more they were re- 

 strained the better. He believed that they were most bene- 

 ficial to the community, because they prevented inventive 

 genius from being wasted away. In the absence of a system 

 of patents inventors would be disposed to keep the fruits of 

 their originality secret ; and consequently they would be lost 

 to the pubHc. Therefore, he thought that a more perfect 

 system of patents, by which every discovery would be secured 

 to the community, and the just reward of his exertions insured 

 to the discoverer, was much to be desired. 



Dr. Madden read a paper containing an accoimt of a pro- 

 posal made in 1617 to apply magnetism as a means of commu- 

 nicating intelligence, by a method resembling the electric tele- 

 graph. 



" The attention turned to the properties of the magnet, by 

 our knowledge of the advantages derived fr'om the mariner's 

 compass, led to the first speculation on the possibihty of the 

 same agency being made a means of rapidly communicating in- 

 telligence between persons widely separated. The project in 

 Latin poetry, of the magnetic telegraph, of the Jesuit Strada, 

 conceived 233 years ago, was the precursor of the electric te- 

 legraph of our times. The application of the peculiar proper- 

 ties of the magnet to the purpose of navigation is claimed for 

 a Neapolitan of the thirteenth century, of the town of Melfi, in 

 the Terra di Lavaro. The first European navigator, however, 

 who visited the Indian seas, had not to teach the Arab and 



