Page:A Letter on the Subject of the Cause (1797).djvu/78

 the knowledge of others, on points where either his learning or his practice fell ſhort, in enabling him to complete his ſpecification in a ſtyle and manner the moſt explanatory and comprehenſive poſſible. And he farther agreed, as near as I can recollect, that no omiſſion or defect in this inſtrument could admit of an apology, while it was in the power of the patentee to have avoided it by the means abovementioned; no more than it would be ſufficient for the author of an ungrammatical publication to attribute it to a want of ſcholarſhip, while ſurrounded with ſcholaſtic abilities in want of ſuch a job. My Lord Mansfield agreed, that this was what he underſtood to be the doctrine of patents; and cited an inſtance where there was in the ſpecification ſuch an omiſſion, as muſt have been fatal to the patent, had it ever been contended in a Court of Law.

This inſtance, my Lord, was the patent granted to Dr. James for Fever Powders, in the ſpecification of which he has mentioned the articles only of which theſe Powders are compoſed, and omitted the proportion or quantity. This being the caſe, continued his Lordſhip, Dr. James never durſt bring any action for infringement; and it was certainly wiſe in him not to do