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ARK.] of the constitutional authority of Congress. We therefore adhere to the rule announced by this court in Wyatt v. Wallace, supra, and Tilson v. Gatliín, supra, that the statutes in question are valid.

It is urged by appellants' counsel in argument that the last section of the act of April 23, 1891, exempting from its operation "merchants and dealers who sell patented things in the usual course of business," violates that clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution of the United States guarantying to all persons within the jurisdiction of a State "the equal protection of the laws," and renders the entire act void. Our attention is cited by counsel, among other authorities thought to sustain their contention on this point, to the opinion of Judge Rogers in the recent case of Union County National Bank v. Ozan Lumber Co., 127 Fed. 206, but we do not find it necessary to review these authorities, nor to pass upon the question now, as it is not essential to a decision of this case. The exemption in question applies only to the sale of "patented things" in the usual course of business, and not to the sale of patent rights. If it be conceded that this exemption be an improper discrimination (which we do not decide) as to those who sell patented articles, and renders the act void as to its application to all sales of patented articles, it leaves the act unimpaired in its application to the sale of patent rights. The act may be unconstitutional and void as to its application to part of the subject-matter, and valid as to others, and we think this rule preserves, unimpaired, the provisions of the statute with reference to notes given for the sale of patent rights. Leep v. Railway, 58 Ark. 407; State v. Deschamp, 53 Ark. 490; L. R. & F. S. Ry. v. Worthen, 46 Ark. 312; State v. Marsh, 37 Ark. 356; Union County Bank v. Ozan, 127 Fed. 206; Cooley's Const. Lim. (7th Ed.) pp. 246, 250.

Though section 1 of the act applies primarily only to the sale of patented articles, even if it be held to be void as to its application to those articles, it will yet be retained so as to carry the application of the second section to it as to the sale of patent rights.

It is further contended that the cause should be reversed because the court erred in submitting to the jury the question