1888-89.] On Dry-Rot. 251 



removed from the site, that the drains be sound, and the 

 wood not painted unless thoroughly dry, as it imprisons the 

 moisture. For a similar reason, linoleum on floors is also 

 objectionable. A few years ago the flooring of the telling- 

 room in one of the branch banks in town was completely 

 destroyed by dry - rot, which, in the builder's opinion, was 

 caused by the laying down of linoleum. Practical men are 

 now taking every precaution to prevent the spread of this 

 disease. A builder of twenty-five years' experience depre- 

 cates the risk run of communicating dry-rot to sound timber 

 through the practice of using dry sawdust as " filling " in 

 framed partitions, and between flooring and sound-boarding 

 for the purpose of deadening sound. The sawdust contains 

 particles of all kinds of timber, some of which may carry a 

 germ of the fungus, which only requires the specified con- 

 ditions to begin its havoc on the surrounding timber. No 

 instance of dry-rot, according to the editor of ' The Builder,' 

 arising from such a cause, has ever been recorded ; but saw- 

 dust so used should be stove-dried, and, if heated to the 

 highest temperature it will bear without burning, would 

 prevent any spores of dry-rot or other disease from germinat- 

 ing. But without stove-drying the danger is a real one, and 

 slag-wool should be used instead of sawdust. 



From the life-history of this endophyte we have seen the 

 refined and insidious nature of the germ, as well as the 

 destructive properties of the spawn. Dry-rot is one of the 

 most distressing of vegetable diseases, and the more highly 

 cultivated the plants useful to man are, the more liable are 

 they to the attacks of parasites. All kinds of parasitic and 

 destructive fungi are rapidly multiplying, for their means 

 of existence have been more largely increased. A thorough 

 acquaintance, therefore, by practical men, with the details 

 in the life - history of these vegetable parasites would pro- 

 bably be a more effective means for their suppression than 

 all the cures and patents hitherto invented. 



[The above paper was illustrated by diagrams, as well as by pieces of 

 timber attacked by dry-rot.] 



At this meeting a paper was read by Mr J. W. Tait on 

 " Embedding and Cutting Animal Tissues," illustrated by 

 microscopic preparations. 



