By Irving Browne.
CURRENT TOPICS. AN UNIQUE LAW SCHOOL. — The Law School of the University of Buffalo is unique in one respect : the lecturers, with one exception, are active practi tioners, and with four exceptions serve without compensation. The board comprises many of the ablest and busiest men in the city, and they make it a point to prefer their lecture engagement to professional business except when they are actually engaged in trials. The result is thus described in a recent circular issued by the board of control : — "In the course of the arguments at Albany it was discov ered through the report of Mr. Franklin M. Danaher, Secretary of the State Board of Law Examiners, that of the seven law schools in the State, the Buffalo Law School stands at the head in point of standard; that in percent ages of successful examinations taken for admission to the Bar, our school is first, and a larger proportion of our graduates are successful than of any school. This fact itself was a powerful argument against any proposed change in our system of instruction, and it indisputably established the truth that instruction in law is best secured from lawyers in the active practice of their profession."
DEFINITIONS. — We have recently gleaned a few legal definitions, new and old : — At. — A meeting of supervisors in a building 100 feet from the court house is not " at the court house." Harris v. State, 72 Miss. 960. Lottery. — A horse-race for stakes is not a lottery. Matter of Dwyer, 14 Misc. 204. Mineral Ore. — Granite is not a " mineral ore," but it is a "mineral." Armstrong v. Lake Champlain Granite Co., 147 N. Y. 495. Museum. — A "museum" may comprehend an exhibition of "living animals." Bostwick v. Purdy, 5 Stewart (Ala.), 505. The question was one of the necessity for procuring a license under a statute requiring a license for any exhibition of " any mu seum, wax works, feats of activity, sleight-of-hand or plays." Taylor, J., delivered a learned and interest ing opinion, in which he traced the word to its Greek root " to amuse." The first museum, he says, was the Alexandrian library. He can see no difference between a collection of large animals and of one of small animals, nor can he see that there is anything
"peculiarly deleterious" in the exhibitions specified in the act, nor any good reason why Mrs. Jarley should be taxed and Mr. liarnum go free. So Bost wick, who waged this qui tarn action, took one hundred dollars to himself. It seems also that another act was passed by the Legislature, reciting the instituting of an action against one Baldwin for a similar unlicensed exhibition, and the meritorious services of Reuben Chapman, attorney-at-law, in procuring judgment therein against Baldwin, and giving Chapman twenty-five dollars for his services. This act the Court deem an indication that the Legis lature meant to include menageries in the term " mu seum." Peddler. — A peddler is an itinerant vendor of goods which he carries with him and delivers. State v. Parsons, 124 Mo. 436; 46 Am. St. Rep. 457; State v. Lee, 113 N. C. 681; 37 Am. St. Rep. 649; State v. Moorehead, 42 S. C. 211; 46 Am. St. Rep. 719. Physician. — A dentist is not a physician, who may prescribe liquor on Sunday. State 7/. McMinn, North Carolina Supreme Court, 24 S. E. Rep. 523. Nora "practitioner of medicine" exempt from jury duty. State v. Fisher, 119 Mo. 344; 12 L. R. A. 799; People v. De France (Mich.), 28 L. R. A. 139Picture. — It is held in People v. Ketchum, 103 Mich. 443, that a photographic negative is a "pic ture" within the meaning of a statute prohibiting the procuring of obscene pictures. But is a stereotype plate a print? Prowl. — This means • • to rove or wander stealth ily, as one in search of plunder." So where a magistrate issued a warrant against one on a deposi tion that a burglary had been committed, and that the accused was "prowling" around the premises about the time, it was held sufficient to afford rea sonable ground of belief that he was the guilty per son, and that no action of false imprisonment would lie. Swart v. Rickard, 148 N. Y. 264. Public Address. — A sermon is a "public ad dress " within a statute prohibiting public addresses on Boston Common. Com. v. Davis, 162 Mass. 510. Yearlings. — A yearling is • any animal in the '33
