of certain organs, &c. After mature consideration, the arrangement which has been followed on the present occasion, although greatly liable to the many objections which we have so strongly urged against that of other writers, appears to the authors to be the one best calculated to accomplish the mixed objects of the publication. The ample synopsis of this arrangement, as presented in the table of contents prefixed to the present volume, would render any detailed account, in this place, superfluous. We have only to observe that the work is divided into three parts, the _first_ comprehending the enumeration of the different medical corporations, with an account of their charters, powers, and privileges, together with the subjects of medical police. The _second_, all those subjects connected with medical evidence, as applicable to _civil_ and _ecclesiastical_ suits, in which the order of the subject corresponds with that of the progress of human life from infancy to old age. The _third_, the inquiries which are necessary to medical evidence, as applicable to _criminal_ cases. In limiting the boundaries of each division, it will be perceived that we have strictly adhered to the general principle of excluding every topic that had not some direct or constructive relation to the health, life, and physical welfare of the subject. Had we regarded chemistry as synonimous with medicine, and pursued the numerous subjects in which it might be rendered available in the construction, elucidation, and administration of the laws, we should have far exceeded the scope of our labours, and have wandered into a rich and imperfectly explored region, as boundless in its extent, as it is interesting in the novelty and utility of its productions. In this case the subject of patents would have formed a prominent feature in the second division of our work; for so rapid is the progress of chemical science, and so precarious the language by which its growing objects and phenomena are expressed, that, in the present state of the law, it becomes an extremely delicate task to draw the specification of a chemical patent in such terms as to escape the snares which ingenuity is ever ready to invent for its destruction. We cannot, perhaps, better exemplify the truth of this position than by the relation of a case that has lately excited a considerable share of public interest. A patent was granted to _Messrs. Hall_ and _Urling_, for a new mode of manufacturing lace. The merit of the improvement turned upon the mode of singeing or burning off the raw ends of the cotton by a flame of gas, which was made to play rapidly through the meshes of the lace, instead of the red hot cylinder, over which it is commonly passed. The infringement of this patent by _Boote_ formed the grounds of the action. The defendant stated that he had employed the flame of burning alcohol for this purpose, which not being a _gas_, but a _vapour_, could not be said to fall within the meaning of