4 oo THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



THE TEEEDO AND ITS DEPREDATIONS. 1 



By Dr. E. H. VON BAUMHAUER, 



COMMISSIONER TO THE CENTENNIAL EXHIBITION FROM HOLLAND. 



1. 



DURING a period of about twenty -five years previous to 1858, the 

 injuries caused to the timber of marine constructions by the 

 Teredo navalis were rarely noticed in Holland, when, during the sum- 

 mer of that year, public anxiety was awakened afresh on that subject. 

 Some repairs, undertaken at that time, of the marine works of the port 

 of Nieuwendam, a village situated on the Y, brought to light the fact 

 that all the piles broke off at the slightest blow, and were found to be 

 entirely eaten off by the teredo. 



The late secretary of the Royal Academy of Sciences of Amster- 

 dam, Prof. W. Vrolik, called the attention of the Academy to this sub- 

 ject at a meeting held November 27, 1858, and the Academy appointed 

 a commission from its own members, composed of Messrs. W. Vrolik, 

 P. Harting, D. J. Storm Buysing, J. W. L. van Oordt, and E. H. von 

 Baumbauer, charged with the duty of collecting and examining into all 

 facts known concerning the natural history of the teredo, and, at the 

 same time, to inquire into the best means for preserving wood from de- 

 struction by that mollusk. 



Considering the great importance of this question to our country, 

 bathed on all sides by the sea, the commission asked the assistance of 

 the Government in its work, which was readily granted. This subject be- 

 ing of equal importance to other countries situated on the sea, and re- 

 searches into the means of preventing the ravages of the teredo having 

 been undertaken and the results published, especially in England, 

 France, and Belgium, I have thought that a brief communication of the 

 results we reached would be interesting and perhaps useful abroad, 

 especially as our work was conducted on a large scale. 



Before relating the experiments conducted by the commission, I pro- 

 pose to give a sketch of the examinations made by Mr. Harting, on the 

 structure of the teredo and its mode of life, which have been very care- 

 fully studied by M. P. Kater, at Nieuwendam. 



On the Mechanism of the Apparatus with which the Teredo 

 perforates its Galleries. The researches of several leading natu- 

 ralists into the habits and structure of mollusks which perforate hard 

 substances, such as wood and stone, have shown that some of them, 

 which are found in calcareous rocks, make their excavations through 

 some chemical means, i. e., by the dissolving action of an acid secretion, 

 while the teredos and some others employ in their work purely mechani- 



1 Extract from the Archives of Holland, vol. i., translated by Edward R. Andrews. 



