text:  Supposing for argument's sake this patent to be valid can a private individual under the existing patent laws take photographic views or portraits for his own amusement or in pursuance of scientific investigations? If he cannot then is an exquisitely beautiful path of physics to be shut up for fourteen years; or if he can then is the licensee a purchaser for value to be excluded from very many sources of pecuniary emolument? To us the injury to the public in this and similar cases appears of incomparably greater consequence than that to the individual; but what the authorities at Westminster Hall may say is another question