are not of the essence of the invention. On the other hand if a knowledge of the particular shape of any article or part is necessary for a performance of the invention, it must, on pain of invalidating the patent, be described, although it may not be of the essence of the invention. In the exposition of the batch of cases illustrated by Lister v. Leather, Foxwell v. Bostock, and Harrison v. The Anderston Foundry Co., Mr. Frost does not reach bed-rock. Indeed, the treatment of these cases affords an example of how strings of dicta may be laid out with but little success in exhibiting the true relation of the cases to each other. The discussion upon 'Variations between the Specifications' (i. p. 188) is distinctly good. We doubt, however-whatever may be the value to the layman-whether much is to be obtained by the practitioner in reading by way of supplement the technical details of inventions, when such details merely show that a certain specification, when construed, described, let us say, a wheelbarrow, and its corresponding specification a potter's wheel, and that the Courts, when acting as a jury, considered the inventions to be different. Indeed, there is technicality in law and technicality in arts and manufactures, and confusion of the one with the other has had much to do with the production of heavily-weighted volumes on patent law and of consequent nausea in those compelled to study them. Though much has been done by Mr. Frost, technicalities of the law have not been wholly disentangled or distinguished, as might readily be done, from those of the arts to which the inventions relate. As is customary, Legitimate developments of the invention' are spoken of (i. p. 188). Yet when the illustrative cases which are given come to be examined, it is manifest that the inventions themselves must not be developed between the filing of the provisional specification and the complete specification. What may be developed is their method of performance. We think it better to say that the invention to be extracted from a complete specification and its corresponding provisional specification must be the same, or not different, but that, without resulting in an invalidation of the patent, the ways of putting it into execution may vary. It is said (i. p. 384) that, in an action for infringement, if the Court be of opinion that a patent is invalid, 'a declaration of invalidity will be the result.' We find nothing of this in the form of 'Judgment for defendant after trial of action' (ii. p. 399), nor are we aware that any such declaration is ordinarily, if at all, made in an action for infringement. In spite of the blemishes, which may loom unduly large in the eyes of a reviewer, we have no doubt that this edition of Mr. Frost's will continue to receive in the future the commendation which the many who have appealed to the previous editions for guidance and information have accorded in the past. The Annual County Courts Practice, 1907. Two vols. London : Sweet & Maxwell, Lim., and Stevens & Sons, Lim. xxxiii and 1227 pp., and vii and 624 pp. (exclusive of separately paged indexes). (258.) The Yearly County Court Practice, 1907. Two vols. London : Butterworth & Co., and Shaw & Sons. cvii and 1220 pp., and xxxii and 631 pp. (258.) THE Annual County Courts Practice is edited by His Honour Judge Smyly and Mr. William James Brooks, and what they have accomplished will not in any way detract from the reputation of either of them for carefulness and accuracy. The book is a very readable one, in the sense that it does not leave its readers the task of picking out the practice from a collection of statutes and rules. In 647 pages of the first volume, the editors have taken some pains to teach in good order what the practice of County Courts really is in its very numerous branches. Not the least valuable chapters, especially having regard to recent legislation, is the chapter on Liability of Employers for Injuries to Workmen. The law and practice under the Workmen's Compensation Acts, 1897 and 1900, are retained for the present, inasmuch as those statutes have not yet expired, but the Workmen's Compensation Act, 1906, which does not come into operation until July 1, has not been forgotten. The editors describe the passing of this Act as by far the most important event of the year in its probable effect upon the work of County Courts. That effect will, doubtless, be largely to increase the work of county court judges, particularly, as the chief classes of employees brought within the new Act, although excluded from the benefits of the old Acts, are, as the editor tells us, 'clerks, assistants in shops, domestic servants, seamen, and workmen suffering from certain industrial diseases, while illegitimate children and grandchildren of an injured workman, and the parents and grandparents of an injured workman who is himself illegitimate, are included among the "dependants" entitled to compensation.' It is obvious that the provision as to including illegitimate offspring and the ancestors of illegitimate workmen among the 'dependants' who are to participate in the benefits of the new Act must involve the courts in some very troublesome inquiries. The first volume also contains the County Court Rules and a number of statutes, while the second volume deals with the jurisdiction and practice under other statutes, including Admiralty and the Winding-up of Companies. There is a chapter in the second volume on the jurisdiction of certain County Courts under the Companies Acts, but we do not find any statement that these county courts have jurisdiction -as they undoubtedly have-to confirm reductions of the capital of any company within their districts, having a paid-up capital of not more than £10,000. Recent decisions and changes effected by new rules seem to be duly noticed. The Yearly County Court Practice for the current year is edited by His Honour Judge Woodfall and Mr. E. H. Tindal Atkinson, who are assisted in their labours by Mr. Willoughby Jardine. The chapter on costs and the precedents of costs are by Mr. Morten Turner, the Registrar of the Watford County Court. This book is framed on the model of the Yearly Practice of the Supreme Court, that is to say, the Acts and Rules are set out with notes thereto respectively. The Workmen's Compensation Acts, 1897 and 1900, are retained for the present, and the Act of 1906 is also given, with notes. The second volume contains the enactments conferring special jurisdiction upon the County Courts, and very numerous they are. The subject of reduction of capital seems to be omitted from this work also. The same volume contains a valuable outline of the procedure under the enactments giving special jurisdiction; and the whole work is well indexed and well arranged. The Annual Digest, 1906. By JOHN MEWS. London: Sweet & xv and 408 pp. (158.) The Yearly Digest, 1906. By G. R. HILL. London Butterworth & Co. xxxii and 441 pp. (158.) THESE two books are very much alike. Each of them gives the cases decided in the English courts, with references to the Law Reports, the Law Journal Reports (again given pre-eminence in the Annual Digest), the Law Times Reports, the Weekly Reporter, the Times Law Reports, the Local Government Reports, the Justice of the Peace, Aspinall's Maritime Cases, Manson's Bankruptcy and Company Cases, Macnamara's Railway and Canal Cases, Commercial Cases, Smith's Registration Cases, and Cox's Criminal Cases. The Yearly Digest also extends to the Reports of Patent Cases, and O'Malley and Hardcastle's Election Petition Reports. Both digests give selections of Scottish and Irish Cases. Each volume contains a list of cases which have been affirmed, followed, reversed, 'blown on,' &c.; and also a list of words whose meanings have been considered, which will no doubt delight Mr. Stroud. The Annual Digest contains a list of the Public Acts passed in 1906. Both digests are excellently done; but each wants a reference to those cases in the Weekly Notes which do not appear at greater length in some other report. Second Edition by L. F. EVEREST. 1907. 8vo. xcviii and 563 pp. Everest and Strode's Law of Estoppel. London: Stevens & Sons, Lim. (258.) TWENTY-THREE years have elapsed since the first edition of this treatise, and it now reappears under the editorship of one of the two original authors. At the date of its first appearance it was the first separate work on the subject as regards English law. Since then we have had Mr. Ewart's book on Estoppel and Misrepresentation, and Mr. Cababé's little essay. The new edition is of considerably larger bulk than its predecessor, but this is due not so much to new decisions (the law of estoppel does not expand at a great pace) as to expansions in the treatment of matters with which the authors originally dealt more briefly. The chapter on 'Domestic Judgments in Personam,' for instance, displays very considerable additions, and a similar observation applies to the chapter on Representation,' which includes the liability of masters and principals for the acts of their servants and agents. This edition, in fine, seems to us, so far as we have inspected it, to provide a safe and valuable guide to the difficult subject with which it deals, and to have been brought well up to date. There might, perhaps, have been a reference to the recent Scottish case of British Linen Co. v. Cowan (1906) 8 F. 704; and we could wish that the citation of cases had been somewhat revised. It is a pity that textbook writers do not always adopt the recognized modes of citation; we find in this book, for instance, Rylands v. Fletcher, L.R. 3 Eng. & Ir. App. 330 (the case is correctly cited in the Index), and Clarke v. Midland Great Western Railway Co. (1895) 2 Ir. Rep. App. 294. But these are only minute criticisms of an excellent book. A Treatise on Statute Law. By WILLIAM FIELDEN CRAIES. Founded on Hardcastle on Statutory Law. London: Stevens & Haynes. 1907. La. 8vo. lxxxix and 664 pp. (288.) MR. CRAIES edited the second and third editions of Hardcastle, and now brings out a treatise on Statute Law 'founded on and being the fourth edition of' that well-known work. He has added two entirely new chapters, one on 'subordinate legislation,' that is, bye-laws and statutory rules and orders; and one on colonial legislation. In these chapters there is brought together a mass of useful information not otherwise readily found. The discussion of the constitutional limits of the powers of the federal and provincial parliaments in Canada, and of the analogous legislative bodies. in India and the Australian Commonwealth, is particularly useful at the present time. The appendices, which consist of an alphabetical list of terms used in statutes, with the judicial or statutory definitions, and of the short and popular titles of statutes, are calculated to earn the gratitude of busy lawyers. Few of us can supply off-hand the reference to such Acts as 'Gilbert Acts,' 'Peel's Acts,' 'Leeman's Act,' 'Michael Angelo Taylor's Act,' yet these popular titles are frequently used in textbooks and in Court, and there are many other Acts known by the names of their promoters, the subject-matter of which most lawyers would find it difficult to state even in the most general terms. Mr. Craies has produced a thoroughly sound and practical treatise, of which he may fairly describe himself as the author. The Law of the Domestic Relations. By WILLIAM PINDER EVERSLEY. Third Edition. London: Stevens & Haynes. 1906. 8vo. ex and 1051 pp. (388.) ALTHOUGH this work treats of many subjects more or less connected with domestic relations, the law with which it deals has undergone but little alteration during the ten years or so which have elapsed since the last edition. This, it seems, is, to some extent, a matter for regret, since, with one exception, it leaves married women as free as ever to commit frauds and shirk their liabilities,' which, as the author courageously asserts, some of them do. He gives as an instance the not uncommon practice of married women carrying on the trade of their bankrupt husbands in defiance of the Bankruptcy Acts, and we agree that this calls for legislative interference. The author also points out the tendency of modern legislation to limit the parental control over infants, the latest instance of which is the Licensing Act, 1902. This tendency can hardly fail to have a salutary effect if kept within proper limits. From what we have said, it will be seen that the author takes wide and enlightened views of the subjects with which he deals. Such views ought to commend themselves to the Legislature, though experience does not make us hopeful as to the chances of non-controversial good sense in that quarter. Turning now from the preface to the book itself, we find the same care and completeness which characterized the former editions. The cases of Hood Barrs v. Heriot [1896] A. C. 174 and Morel v. Westmoreland [1904] A. C. 11, which are perhaps the two most important decisions since the last edition, are adequately dealt with. On the other hand there are some cases like In re Hope Johnstone [1904] I Ch. 470 which have hardly received the notice they deserve. That case was very fully argued and very carefully considered, but it is dismissed on p. 12 as being wrongly decided, and not cited at all on p. 457 where we expected to find it. Again, the subject of fraud by infants receives but scant recognition. We have been unable to find any reference to it in the index. Nor is it pointed out in dealing with Thurstan v. Nottingham Building Society [1903] A. C. 6 that the decision might have been different, as Lord Justice Romer suggested, if the infant had been guilty of fraud. On the whole, however, the book is both exhaustive and accurate, and we do not doubt that it will meet with the same favourable reception afforded to the previous editions. By his Building Contracts, Building Leases, and Building Statutes. THE characteristics of the present edition are accuracy and clearness of statement. An alteration in the sequence of the chapters would, in our opinion, improve the book, but the contents of each chapter are arranged in an orderly manner, and there is nothing in the present order of the chapters likely to lead to confusion, and that after all is the important point. When dealing with conveyancing and equity points, the editors are not seen at their best, but positive misstatements are rare. Ramsden v. Dyson, L. R. 1 H. L. 129, has, in their eyes, merited an elaborate analysis. It is, however, merely a case of estoppel by conduct. Judges of common law courts might have applied a similar rule, but for a blind adherence to the letter of the Statute of Frauds. As is well known, courts of equity refused to allow an Act passed for prevention of many fraudulent practices' to be turned into an instrument of fraud or oppression. Indeed it may well be doubted whether the language used in Pickard v. Sears, 6 A. & E. 469, and Freeman v. Cooke, 2 Ex. 654, is not more far reaching in its consequences than anything that was said in Ramsden v. Dyson. The table of cases, in the compilation of which Mr. Charles E. M. Dillon has assisted, and the index, are both excellent examples of how the work should be done, and the precedents and glossary of architectural and building terms are useful in their way. All but two of the cases collected in the appendix are cited from newspaper reports not certified by a member of the Bar, and therefore cannot be used as authority and are of little, if any, value to the profession. A Summary of the Law of Companies. By T. EUSTACE SMITH. Ninth Edition. By the Author and ARTHUR STREBEL. 1907. London: Stevens & Haynes. xx and 404 pp. (98.) In the present edition it has been thought better to 're-cast and rewrite the whole book.' One result has been to enlarge certain portions of it, including those which relate to debentures, reconstructions, and arrangements under the Act of 1870. The work is eminently one for students, although, as Mr. Eustace Smith says, in the preface to the first edition, it may be of use to the general reader. It is nearly thirty years since the first edition appeared, which shows that Mr. Eustace Smith took upon himself the burden of authorship at an early age. We have also received:- Law Reports of the East Africa Protectorate, Vol. I. 1897-1905. With Appendices containing Notes on Native Customs, Appeal Court Rules, &c. Compiled by R. W. HAMILTON, Principal Judge, High Court. London: Stevens & Sons, Lim. 1906. La. 8vo.-From Mr. Hamilton's Introduction to this volume we learn that the laws administered within the Protectorate are (1) Mahommedan law, applied to Mahommedan natives in |