518 TRANSACTIONS OF THE AMKRICAN INSTITUTE, 



Mr. Seely said he went into that matter last week, but did 

 not give his conclusions on the subject. 



Chairman. — Will some gentleman tell us how salt preserves 

 meat, and if it would preserve wood in the same manner. 



Mr. Koch said there was a cave in Bremen, called the " Lead 

 Cave," which possessed the peculiar property of preserving 

 bodies of every kind to a wonderful extent, keeping the flesh 

 quite hard. It had an arsenical atmosphere, which he thought 

 was the cause of it. In preserving timber, he would first put 

 the trees in the water, and leave them there until they would 

 sink ; after that he would apply an arsenious mixture to them. 



Chairman. — The albumen that is found in cells of wood that 

 has not been converted into hydrogen, is it not capable, by some 

 mechanical operation, of preventing it from being injurious to 

 the wood? Dry rot is to be apprehended if you close up the 

 pores of the wood. 



Mr. Garvey. — You should distill wood till you bring about all 

 the changes that it is liable to by the application of moderate 

 heat, &c. If you reduce the temperature of wood, bringing it to 

 freezing point, it will not decay. In my experience in building 

 I have found it necessary to have the scantling of wood of a 

 proper size, so as to prevent springing, &c. Sap is the most 

 unstable of the organic ^latters existing in wood. Water is 

 very useful in removing sap and gum from wood. I have also 

 used alcohol and strong ley to advantage in my method of mak- 

 ing artificial boxwood, for removing all soluble matters. Fossili- 

 zation is sure to make wood last for a long time. I think that 

 the introduction of arsenic into timber used for building pur- 

 poses would be very deleterious to the public health, and at the 

 same time would be so very expensive that it could not be 

 employed. 



Mr. Dibben. — Mr. Stevens, eight or ten years ago, made a 

 series of experiments on the Amboy Road. He used corrosive 

 sublimate. Creosote and coal tar were also used, but the cost 

 was found to be greater than the gain. Late reports state that 

 some of the timber used on English railways has been taken up, 

 after having been laid for three years, and it was found to be 

 harder than when it was put down, the coating that was applied 

 to it before it was laid having formed a coat which efiectually 

 preserved it. One of the results of those experiments can be 

 found in the Franklin Institute Journal. Nothing else but car- 



