436 On the Dhj-Rot. 



w.ir, the Topaze frigate, &c. as mentioned in the Philosophfca't 

 Magazine for last month, cannot be viewed with indifference j 

 and the sum of 5000/. paid by Government to Dr. Lukin for his 

 ineffectual labours in endeavouring to stop the protjre-s of this 

 most destructive malady, is an incontrovertible proof of tlie an- 

 xious attention of those in power to this indispensable depart- 

 ment of our national defence. The statement alluded ro in a 

 matter of such importance to the country, I should su[)po9e alone 

 sufficient to rouse the cfTorts of every scientific individual in the 

 kingdom to stay the effects of a baneful catdier, that may one 

 day leave Government deficient in means of chastizing an insolent 

 foe, and which must damp the spirit of enterprise, and ruin the 

 prosperity and political influence of our envied isle. 



The plan I have to propose for consideration for the cure of 

 the dry-rot in those ships already infected, the prevention of its 

 effects in those that are unsuspected, and the preparation of the 

 dmber for those building, or to be built, is not the effusion of 

 idle speculation, but the result of much deliberate thought and 

 observation, and very simple in its application. 



In the first place allow me to premise, that all timber de- 

 stined for ship-building, particidarly for the Navy, where strength 

 and durability are so essentially necessary, ought never to be 

 cut till after the fall of the leaf. At this stage. Nature has done 

 her work for the season ; the efforts of vegetation are gone to 

 rest, and all the juices of the plant fully ripened and con>pleteIy 

 lignated. Then, and only then,should all navy timber be eutdown. 

 But so soon as the roots begin to absorb the new sap, cease felling 

 till next fall. By the time the buds begin to swell, the new and 

 unlignated sap has reached the most remote twig, and the trunk 

 and branches of the tree are surcharged with fresh juice, and every 

 pore replete with vegetable life. Timber cut in this state, or m 

 leaf, or in flower, must be found perfectly full of new blood, and 

 in the very strength of vegetation ; cousecjuently completely loaded 

 with the germs of future corruption. This is the fundamental 

 basis of the dry-rot. The vegetative )irincrple does not expire 

 with the stroke of the axe, nor the rag of the saw, but will, un- 

 corrected, still exist, and in time produce in every pore innume- 

 rable fungi, and render even the hardest portion of the plank 

 food for worms. In examining masses of oak dug from the al- 

 luvial strata of the country, where it has lain for ages unknown, 

 many of them are found fresh and somid as the day in which 

 they had been torn from their respective roots. But wherever 

 tliis has been found the case, the timber is uniformly black as 

 ebony and obdurately hard. I was led from curiosity to exa- 

 uiine several of these old trunks; and searching mirmtely for the 

 cause of this preservf.tion in the effect, and to satisfy myself 



whether 



