Inquiries relative to the Structure of Wood. 471 



Heat developed In the Combustion of Birch Wood. 



On comparing the results of these six experiments, 

 all made with the same kind of wood, in thin shavings, 

 it will appear that the drier the wood, the greater was the 

 quantity of heat produced from a given weight of shav- 

 ings. But I found, in taking account of the quantities 

 of moisture contained in the woods, the quantities of 

 heat were always sensibly proportional to those of the 

 dry wood burned, with the exception, however, of the 

 three latter experiments, which were made with wood 

 highly dried for 24 hours in a stove, and which gave 

 several indications, by no means equivocal, of the be- 

 ginning of a decomposition. 



The shavings most scorched in the stove gave less 



