354 SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR 



temperature a little above that of boiling water, that is the 

 easiest method of destroying the pest. Or, again, I should 

 suggest placing the piece of furniture in a refrigerating 

 chamber for a week or two. If neither of these methods 

 can be used, the piece of furniture should be placed in a 

 very hot room, and creosote or bisulphide of carbon or 

 solution of cyanide of potassium should be injected with 

 a very fine-nosed syringe into 

 the little circular holes of the 

 burrows on the surface of the 

 wood; then the piece of furniture 

 must be at once exposed to the 

 cold, which will cause the air to 

 be drawn into the burrows and 

 diffuse the volatile poison within. 

 The " worm holes " on the sur- 

 face should, as soon as the piece 

 of furniture is quite cold, be 



FIG. 64-The book-louse, or d Sed b ^ mdted P araffin " If 

 Atropos divinatoria, a soft, the piece of WOOd which it is 

 cream-coloured, wingless in- desired to " CUre " will stand 



sect smaller than a flea, it subme rsion in water for a few 



is believed by some observers . , . . , 



to be capable of making sounds minutes, and is not larger than 



like the ticking of a watch. a cricket bat, it is, of course, 



easy, by first warming it through 



and then plunging it into water containing corrosive 

 sublimate or other poison, fairly to impregnate the 

 burrows, and make an end of the beetles and their 

 grubs. Painting is the common and approved means 

 of protecting wood against these attacks, and in some 

 positions metal sheathing is used. The method most 

 largely used for protecting wood in the open air against 

 " worm " and " mould " is that of forcing creosote into 

 its pores an improvement on the old system of painting 

 with coal tar. A more expensive but beautiful method 



