MESSUAGE
MESSUAGE, property. This word is synonymous with dwelling-house; and a grant of a messuage with the appurtenances, will not only pass a house, but all the buildings attached or belonging to it, as also its curtilage, garden and orchard, together with the close on which the house is built. 1 Inst. 5, b.; 2 Saund. 400; Ham. N. P. 189; 4 Cruise, 321; 2 T. R. 502; 1 Tho. Co. Litt. 215, note 35; 4 Blackf. 331. But see the cases cited in 9 B. & Cress. 681; S. C. 17 Engl. Com. L. R. 472. This term, it is said, includes a church. 11 Co. 26; 2 Esp. N. P. 528; 1 Salk. 256; 8 B. & Cress. 25; S. C. 15 Engl. Com. L. Rep. 151. Et vide 3 Wils. 141; 2 Bl. Rep. 726; 4 M. & W. 567; 2 Bing. N. C. 617; 1 Saund. 6. METHOD. The mode of operating or the means of attaining an object. 2. It has been questioned whether the method of making a thing can be patented. But it has been considered that a method or mode may be the subject of a patent, because, when the object of two patents or effects to be produced is essentially the same, they may both be valid, if the modes of attaining the desired effect are essentially different. Dav. Pat. Cas. 290; 2 B. & Ald. 350; 2 H. Bl. 492; 8 T. R. 106; 4 Burr. 2397; Gods. on Pat. 85; Perpigna, Manuel des Inventeurs, &c., c. 1, sect. 5, 1, p. 22.