Note 4 — (B) PRINCIPLES OF THE NEW CLASSIFICATION OF THE PATENT OFFICE.

A "property" may be described as any quality common and essential to the whole of a class but not necessary to mark out that class from other classes. Thus, all wheel tires may be said to possess annularity; but washers and finger rings are also annular. A "peculiar property" is one that not only always belongs to a class of objects but belongs to that class alone; thus a circle has the peculiar property of containing the greatest space within a line of given length, and catalytic substances have the power of setting up chemical reaction without themselves being changed.