OCR Text |
Show 286 DRY ROT. flowing b1ood "a wound,n or the worms that con~ sume the body "death." 'Vhy come the fungi there~ There was a time when dry rot was unknown; and as long as the beams of houses were of good oak, OJ!' chestnut, or red pine from the north of Europe, there was no information laid against serpula. Besides,there never appeared a single _fungus of a!ly species upon or near the piece of oak m the expenment, and yet it passed from wha~ may be reg~rded as the best state that it could be m for durahun, to absolute uselessness, in so short a time, that if a ship were to decay as fast, the whole freight that could be ob~ tained would not pay for the treenails. How is the same dry rot to be got rid of1 " Oh, wash the timbers with sulphate of iron, and other saline solutions, and let the ship., or the house, as it may be, be well ventilated." The old story. " Call in the doctor, apply a lotion, and exhibit a bolus," under which the diseased have continued to die ever since medicine was a science. Are ships kept less clean now than they were before the dry rot was heard oP or are they or houses worse ventilated 1 Trnl'y not. If there be any difference, the ships must be kept sweeter, else the chlorides, and other powerful. fumigations, have been invented and applied to little purpose. The crews certainly keep their health bet~ ter than they did formerly; and it would be some~ wh ~t wonderful, if air which were more wholesome for human beings should be more deadly for oak timber ! As for the houses again, there are certainly more under-ground apartments than there were once, and possibly 1nore than it is wise to have. It may happen, too, that the tax upon windows has impaired the ventilation by those apertures; but in rn:any of the modern houses, and those especially where the rot appears, the loss of ventilation by windows has been more than made up in ventilation by walls, many of which are so thin, and of materials so in· THE ROT PRECEDES TilE FUNGUS. 287 vfiermnt,i ltahtaotr, ainll aosv efar.r as a.I r . , IS concerned, the fabric is But fungi, by what name called, are not locomoti d s soever they may be full-grown, ·career over ~~e fstdoyers; they do not, p~ey upon sound timber as t!! kand the waters, to buds, or wolves to pre 'u laW s do to prey upon whatever else the snral pon sheep. The ~po~re, or gerr~es of the fungus m!' and generally mvisible , passive, and of themselve ~ be called, are perfectly an oak beam than could b s can do no more h<um to !he s<!il it?- which alone i~ ~~~e by a. mustard-seed. It~ achon! IS rotted wood. If . germmat:e, or heg~n :Will geormmate; if not it .11 It ~e.et w.1th that, 1t ts no doubt that th ' . WI r~mam machve. There t I.m b er has increaseed mthc reasmg quan t.I ty of rotted but that it has in now e number of those plants. ture, which is to gro~! i~ter~f the law of their na~ wood which is sound Th ro en wo?d, but not in the case, ther·efore is. th t ~h onl:y rational view of ( ten before the fungus ca: t e tunb.er must be rot-d degree; and that, consequean~iyev~l I~ the sl~ghtest need by the rot, and not ; e ungus IS prothough the fungus is dest;~e rot by the fun~s; and probably as fast as if th ted, the rot Will go on only as the fun us h· e ungus were not there ure, and as moi~ture a~h~ gr~a.t attraction for moist~ trument in producin'O' th~Wot nt~ t~e cause, is an inat ~ppears, hasten th; destru~tio~ ungus may, when It has been thought adv· · . at some length; first b lsab.le _to g<! mto this case one-one of the mo' t ~cause It IS a highly important tion of a maritimes Important to which the attensecondly, because it sh~ople h can be turned ; and proceed upon mere hum ws .o"!" dangerous it is t~ the holder of that . . .an opmwn, however learned ~ut by facts whi·c ho hp uuonb may. b el ·r · · I It IS not borne lished by a careful a;~d, ~hen found out and estaborough observation of |