The property sold need not of necessity have a corporeal existence; for instance, the good will of partnership may be sold.8 It has also been held that knowledge and existence of an oil well may be the subject of a contract of sale.9 Goods, wares and merchandise, according to Massachusetts decision, do not include mere rights which have not a visible and palpable form, such as a mere debt,10 or shares of stock in a company not formed.11 But it is not essential that the property to be the subject of sale should be corporeal; it may be incorporeal. In New Jersey goods, wares, and merchandise include everything, in short, not comprehended in the terms lands, tenements and hereditaments.12 In Georgia, the words goods, wares, and merchandise are held to include accounts.13

1 Spooner vs. Holmes, 102 Mass.,

507; Jones vs. Nellis, 41 I11.,

485. 2 Banta vs. Chicago, 172 I11., 204;

Baldwin vs. Williams, 3 Metc,

(Mass.) 365. 3 Crawford vs. Schmitz, 139 I11.,

564; Vauter vs. Griffin, 40

Ind., 593; Whittemire vs.

Gibbs, 24 N. H., 484.

4 Webbs vs. R. R. Co., 77 Md., 92;

Hamble vs. Mitchell, 11 A. &

E., 205. 5 Evans vs. Roberts, 5 B. & C, 829.

6 Graff vs. Fitch, 58 I11., 373.

7 Boardman vs. Cutter, 128 Mass., 388.

8 Barber vs. Com. Mutual L. Ins.

Co., 15 Fed. Rep., 312.

A physician in a country village being about to move elsewhere proposed to another physician to come and take his place, and in consideration of the payment of $500 by the newcomer the retiring physician agreed to recommend the newcomer to his patrons and to use his influence in his favor. The Court held in an action to recover the money, that the business of the plaintiff was not such a personal trust and confidence, that it would not be the subject of sale.14 The route of a newspaper carrier may be the subject of sale.15 An uncertain hope may be sold.16 But a contract to deliver goods not in existence at the time, is not a sale.17 So it has been held that there can be no complete sale of a crop not yet planted.18