300 President Bentham’s Address at the 
date on which the priority of discovery or of names is to be 
established. It has been universally acknowledged that priority 
epends upon the date of publication; but it has been a much 
debated question what amounts to a publication so as to fix that 
date. Is it to be the time when a paper is read, or when it has 
gone through the press so as to prevent any further alterations 
on the part of the author, or when it is actually given out for 
sale, or simply the date it bears on the title page? I believe 
that at the Royal Society the date of reading a paper is con- 
sidered as a sufficient publication to establish rights of priority 
in a discovery or invention, and, in a legal point of view, wit 
reference, for instance, to the law of patents, it seems reasonable 
that it should be so; for it is not fair that an inventor should 
obtain the sole right to his invention when the same or a siml- 
lar one had been produced at the same time or before him, al- 
so himself does not feel bound by it and eee’ 
_* # 
