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sium was found to dissolve gold, presumably it would dissolve gold in ore, but, if there were any doubt that it could be applied usefully, Eae said that it could be usefully applied to ore, though it was better to have electricity. Sir E. Webster denied that Eae showed that, and submitted that this kind of anticipation was not sufficient to invalidate the patent. With regard to the suggestion that persons had paid £117,000 for a step which was merely the omission of a chemical from Simpson's patent, he asked the attention of the Court to the greatness of the step taken by the plaintiffs' invention. It was not until the reply that any suggestion was made that it was not a great step. In conclusion, the learned counsel said that this case was to be decided by the evidence, and he submitted that this most useful invention, which had been pirated by the defendants because it was a useful invention, was the result of experiment, research, and the bringing to bear of great skill and knowledge ; that it had not been generally or specifically anticipated; and that the defendants ought to be restrained by injunction from taking that which had been proved to be a new and useful invention. Mr. Justice Eomer : I will consider my judgment. Judgment of Mr. Justice Bomer.—Plaintiffs have no Patent. The long-deliberated judgment of Mr. Justice Eomer in the case Cassel Gold-extracting Company v. the Cyanide Gold-recovery Company and others was delivered on Thursday, the Bth November, 1894. The plaintiffs, it will be remembered, urged that they were the registered owners of certain letters patent, numbered 14,174, of 1887, granted to John Stewart Mac Arthur, W. Forrest, and William Forrest, for improvements in obtaining gold and silver ores and other compounds. They alleged that the defendants had at divers times infringed the plaintiffs' letters patent by employing a process of obtaining gold and silver from ores, consisting in dissolving them out by treating the powdered ore or compound with a solution containing cjanogen, or a cyanide, or a cyanogen-yielding substance, substantially as described and claimed in the specification. The plaintiffs accordingly claimed the usual relief in a patent action. Sir Bichard Webster, Q.C., Mr. Moulton, Q. 0., Mr. Bousfield, Q.C., and Mr. A. J. Walter were for the plaintiffs ; Sir Edward Clarke, Q.C., Mr. Neville, Q.C., and Mr. T. M. Goodeve for the defendant syndicate; and Mr. Goodeve for the defendant Pielsticker. The defendant Bowick conducted his own case. Mr. Justice Eomer delivered judgment as follows : Since the conclusion of the arguments I have read through the notes of the evidence, and have further considered that evidence and the different points urged by counsel, and in the result I am confirmed in the opinion that this patent cannot be sustained. The invention claimed in the patent is a very simple one, and the claim very comprehensive. It is for the application of a solution containing cyanogen, so as to dissolve the gold and silver in powdered ores. The gold —for I need not further distinguish the silver—is then to be recovered from the solution by any of the well-known ways. The kind of solution to be used as the solvent is described by the specification very broadly. It is to be any solution containing cyanogen or any cyanide soluble in water (such as cyanide of potassium), or any other substance or compound containing or yielding cyanogen. No special apparatus or machinery, or device or scheme of any kind, is required. The solution is simply to be poured on the ore. You may stir the ore about in the solution if expedition is required; or, if you choose, you may let the solution rest so as gradually to dissolve the gold in the ore. In fact, the patent really is for an alleged discovery that a solution containing cyanogen can be used to dissolve out the fine gold in powdered ore. Now, how did matters stand at the date of this patent ? It was perfectly well known that a solution of cyanide of potassium would solve gold in a fine state, and that the finer the gold the more speedy the process. The peculiar property of cyanogen, that it would solve fine gold if oxygen were present, is well known. The chemist in his laboratory knew that by pouring a solution of cyanide of potassium on fine gold he could solve the gold. It is true that in this country no one had commercially used a solution of cyanide of potassium to extract the fine gold in the powdered ore; but this is not surprising when the following facts are borne in mind : First, that in this country very little gold ore is found at all, and that, so far as appears up to the date of this patent, ores were not brought to this country from abroad to have the gold extracted here as a commercial transaction. And, secondly, even if the gold in the ore had been extracted there was no known successful and paying method of recovering the gold from the solution. It is proved before me that for some time after the date of the plaintiffs' patent the patentees alleged invention was not commercially worked because no efficient and paying method was known of recovering the gold, and that it was not until the patentees subsequently made a discovery, which they patented, of a new method of recovering the gold from the solution that the use of a solution of cyanide of potassium to extract the fine gold in the ore was practically employed for commercial purposes. But the matter does not rest here. Not only was the above-mentioned property of cyanide of potassium known, but in 1867 one Eae took out a patent in the United States, and the specification of his invention was published here before the date of the plaintiffs' patent. Eae's invention, as there described, was, inter alia, for the extraction of the gold from the powdered ore. His process was this :He took a solution suitable to solve the gold from the ore, and he expressly mentions a solution of cyanide of potassium as one that could be employed, and he poured this solution on the ore in a vessel which he agitated by machinery, and he used electricity for two purposes—first (as he expressly says) to facilitate the action of the solution in solving the gold in the ore ; and, secondly, to recover it from the solution by depositing it on a certain base in the machine. So that, undoubtedly, in his specification he recommends the use of cyanide of potassium in a solution as a means and for the purpose of solving the gold in the powdered ore ; and he was, of course, right in so using it. And Ido not see that his recommendation is rendered worthless, because he also recommends electricity to facilitate the action of the