Patent-Rights in Steamboats—The Corps of Examiners—Twenty Thousand Applications _per annum_—Fourteen Thousand Patents Granted in One Year—Wonderful Expansion of Inventive Genius—“The Universal Yankee”—Second-hand Inventions—Where the Inventions Come From—Taking Out a Patent for the Lord’s Prayer—A Patent for a Cow’s Tail—A Lady’s Patent—Hesitating to Accept a Million Dollars—How Patentees are Protected—The American System—Exploits of General Leggett—His Efficiency in Office—The Inventor Always a Dreamer—Perpetual Motion—The Invention of a D. D.—Silencing the Doctor—A New Process of Embalming—A Dead Body Sent to the Office—Utilizing Niagara—An Englishman’s Invention—Inventors in Paris—How to Kill Lions and Tigers in the United States with Catmint—A Fearful Bomb Shell—Eccentric Letters—Amusing Specimens of Correspondence, 446 CHAPTER XLII. THE WAR DEPARTMENT. The Secretary-of-War—His Duties—The Department of the Navy—The Custody of the Flags—Patriotic Trophies—The War of the Rebellion—Captured Flags—An Ugly Flag and a Strange Motto—The Stars and Stripes—The Black Flag—No Quarter—The Washington Aqueduct—Topographical Engineers—The Ordnance Bureau—The War Department Building—During the War—Lincoln’s Solitary Walk—Secretary Stanton—The Exigencies of War—The Medical History of the War—Dr. Hammond—Dr. J. H. Baxter—The Inspection of over Half a Million Persons—Who is Unfit for Military Service—Curious Calculations Respecting Height, Health, and Color, 460 CHAPTER XLIII. THE ARMY MEDICAL MUSEUM—ITS CURIOSITIES AND WONDERS.