140 THE MICROSCOPE AND ITS LESSONS. 



denly disappeared below, the boards letting him down. 

 The woody tissue had been entirely eaten up by the 

 small plant which feeds upon it, and is commonly called 

 " dry-rot." 



I do not know, in all my experience, of better illus- 

 tration of the importance of little things than may be 

 found in the ravages occasioned by this microscopic 

 vegetable, known to botanists by the name of Merulins 

 laclirymans, which in a few years will destroy some of the 

 best and most solid-looking of houses. "The ships in 

 the Crimea suffered more from this cajuse than from the 

 ravages of fire or the shot and shells of the enemy. So 

 virulent is its nature that it extends from the woodwork 

 of a house even to the walls themselves, and, by pene- 

 trating their interstices, crumbles them into pieces." " I 

 knew," says Professor Burnett, " a house into which the 

 rot gained admittance, and which, during the four years 

 we rented it, had the parlours twice wainscoted, and a 

 new flight of stairs erected, the dry-rot having rendered it 

 unsafe to go from the ground floor to the bedrooms. Every 

 precaution was taken to remove the decaying timbers 

 when the new work was done ; yet the dry-rot so rapidly 

 gained strength that the house was ultimately pulled 

 down. Some of my books which suffered least, and 

 which I still retain, bear mournful impressions of its 

 ruthless hand; others were so much affected that the 

 leaves resembled tinder, and, when the volumes were 

 opened, fell out in dust or fragments." * 



Surely these are solemn "lessons" to be read in such 

 a revelation as this, which only the microscope could 

 have explained. 



Dr. Carpenter mentions that in the neighbourhood of 

 Bas ; ngstoke a paving-stone, measuring twenty-one inches 



* Quoted by Rev. H. Macmillun. 



