286 REMARKS ON THE DRY ROT. 
sending forth a very disagreeable odour. A new 
plinth was immediately put down; and holes 14 in, 
in diameter, at every yard, were bored through it. 
This admitted a free circulation of air; and to this 
day the wood is as sound and good as the day on 
which it was first put down. The same year, I 
reared up, in the end of a neglected and notoriously 
damp barn, a lot of newly felled larch poles; and I 
placed another lot of larch poles against the wall 
on the outside of the same barn. These are now 
good and well seasoned: those within became 
tainted, the first year, with what is called dry rot, 
and were used for firewood. 
If, then, you admit a free circulation of air to the 
timber which is used in a house (no difficult matter), 
and abstain from painting that timber till it be per- 
fectly seasoned, you will never suffer from what is 
called dry rot. And if the naval architect, by 
means of air-holes in the gunwale of a vessel (which 
might be closed in bad weather), could admit a free 
circulation of air to the timbers; and if he could, 
also, abstain from painting, or doing with turpen- 
tine, &c., the outer parts of the vessel, till the wood 
had become sufficiently seasoned, he would not 
have to complain of dry rot. I am of opinion, that, 
if a vessel were to make three or four voyages 
before it is painted, or done with turpentine, &c., 
its outer wood would suffer much less from the in- 
fluence of the weather than it usually suffers from 
its own internal juices, which cannot get vent, on 
account of artificial applications to the pores. But 
still the timber would be subject to the depredation 
