306 THE ROT 



has impaired the ventilation by those apertures ; 

 but in many of the modern houses, and those es- 

 pecially where the rot appears, the loss of venti- 

 lation by windows has been more than made up 

 in ventilation by walls, many of which are so 

 thin, and of materials so infirm, that, in as far 

 as air is concerned, the fabric is ventilator all over. 

 But fungi, by what names soever they may be 

 called, are not locomotive destroyers ; they do not, 

 full grown, career over the land and the waters, to 

 prey upon sound timber, as hawks do to prey upon 

 birds, or wolves to prey upon sheep. The sports, 

 or whatever else the small, arid generally invisible 

 germs of the fungus may be called, are perfectly 

 passive, and of themselves can db no more harm to 

 an oak beam, than could be done by a mustard seed. 

 The soil, in which alone it can germinate, or 

 begin its action, is rotted wood. If it meet with 

 that, it will germinate ; if not, it will remain in- 

 active. There is no doubt that the increasing 

 quantity of rotted timber has increased the num- 

 ber of those plants ; but that has in no way al- 

 tered the law of their nature, which is to grow in 

 rotten wood, but not in wood which is sound. 

 The only rational view of the case, therefore, is 

 that the timber must be rotten before the fungus 

 can act even in the slightest degree ; and that, 

 consequently, the fungus is produced by the rot, 

 and not the rot by the fungus ; and though the 

 fungus is destroyed, the rot will go on probably 

 as fast as if the fungus were not there ; only as 

 the fungus has a great attraction for moisture, 

 and as moisture, though not the cause, is an in- 

 strument in producing the rot, the fungus may, 

 when it appears, hasten the destruction. 



