154 HARVARD LAW REVIEW. While this book would be of little service to the practising lawyer, the student and those interested in tracing the historical development of the law will find it very useful. Besides dealing thoroughly with the subject from the historical standpoint, the writer discusses at some length many of the questions which arise upon this topic of the law. Many illustrative cases are cited, often with great fulness. The book is devoted exclusively to the law of England, as the title shows. The arrangement is systematic and the indexing thorough. [The class in Property II. will find in Chapter I. a very good discussion of the origin and growth of the "lost grant theory," in connection with the case of Angus v. Dalton.] The Law of Electricity. By Seymour D. Thompson, LL.D. pp. xl and 525. Central Law Journal Co., St. Louis, Mo., 1891. This volume, as the author says in his preface, is an attempt to state and classify the adjudged law applicable to Telegraphs, Telephones, Electric Lights, Electric Railways, and other Electrical Appliances. The growing popularity of the electric current as a means of facili- tating travel and communication of all kinds, has necessarily brought with it an endless flow of litigation of an entirely novel character. Though several treatises on the law of telegraph and telephone com- panies are in existence, no attempt has been made to collect the authorities and state the law in regard to other electrical appliances until now. The book therefore should find favor with the profession. It is also of value as containing the latest authorities on the subject of telegraphs and telephones. The elaborate and detailed table of con- tents is not the least valuable portion of the book ; it covers twenty- one pages, and is a well-arranged and exhaustive summary of the remainder. A Treatise on the Law of Personal Property. By Joseph J. Darlington, LL.D., of Georgetown University College of Law. Founded on the treatise of Joshua Williams, Esq. Philadelphia : T. & J. W. Johnson & Co., 1891. pp. 469. Mr. Darlington in this work has followed Mr. Williams exactly in the division of the subject, treating it under the same head and arranging the subdivisions in the same order. Modern English statutory provisions and such parts as were of value to English lawyers, but of little value to the bar of this country, have been omitted, and the American law on the subjects treated in the foot-notes of the last edition of Williams, together with many topics not considered at all in that book, is given in the body of the work. As stated in the preface, " every paragraph, with inconsiderable ex- ceptions, the references in which are exclusively to English authorities, is the unchanged text of Mr. Williams. All paragraphs containing both English and American citations, or the latter only, are wholly new." The chapter on Ships and the one on Patents, Trade-marks, Prints and Labels, and Copyright are entirely new, and both have been care- fully prepared. The former is the work of Martin F. Morris, LL.D., Professor of Admiralty in the Law School of the Georgetown University, and the latter was written by Robert G. Dyrenforth, LL.D., late Acting Commissioner of Patents.
