34'2 DECAY OF WOODY FIBRE. 



bon, which must remain unchanged, since carbon does not com- 

 bine with oxygen at common ten peratures. 



But this final result is never attained in the decay of wood 

 under common circumstances ; and for this reason, that with the 

 increase of the proportion of carbon in the residual humus, as in 

 all decompositions of this kind, its attraction for the hydrogen, 

 which still remains in combination, also increases, until at 

 length the affinity of oxygen for the hydrogen is equalled by that 

 of the carbon for the same element. 



In proportion as the decay of woody fibre advances, its pro- 

 perty of burning with flame, or, in other words, of developing 

 carburetted hydrogen on the application of heat, diminishes. 

 Decayed wood burns without flame ; whence no other conclu- 

 sion can be drawn, than that the hydrogen, which analysis 

 shows to be present, is not contained in it in the same form as 

 in wood. 



Decayed oak contains more carbon than fresh wood, but its 

 hydrogen and oxygen are in the same proportion to each other, 

 that is, in the proportion to form water. 



We should naturally expect that the flame given out by de- 

 cayed wood should be more brilliant in proportion to the increase 

 of its carbon, but we find, on the contrary, that it burns like 

 tinder, exactly as it no hydrogen were present. For the pur- 

 poses of fuel, decayed or diseased wood is of little value, for it 

 does not possess the property of burning with flame — a property 

 upon which the advantages of common wood depend. The 

 hydrogen of decayed wood must, consequently, be supposed to 

 be in the state of water ; for had it any other form, the charac- 

 ters we have described would not be possessed by the decayed 

 wood . 



If we suppose decay to proceed in a liquid containing much 

 carbon and hydrogen, then a compound with still more carbon 

 must be formed, in a manner similar to the production of the 

 crystalline colorless naphthalin from a gaseous compound of car- 

 bon and hydrogen. And if the compound thus formed were 

 itself to undergo further decay, the final result must be the sepa- 

 ration of carbon in a crystalline form. 



Science can point to no process capable of accounting for the 



