WOOD. 



with pure pellucid cryftal, and others in large maffes, part 

 of which is wholly petrified, and fome mere ftone, while the 

 reft is crumbly and unaltered wood. 



All thefe pieces of petrified wood are ufually capable of 

 a hifrh and elegant polifh. Hill. 



Wood has been found in falt-mines, inclofed in a mafs of 

 hard fait, and its pores filled with the matter of the fait in 

 which it lay. Wood has likewife been found converted as 

 it were into iron, or thoroughly impregnated with the par- 

 ticles of this metal. Aft. JErud. ann. 1710. 



Wood, Petrified. The opinions of the judicious part of 

 the world have been very different in regard to the bodies 

 prcferved in the cabinets of the curious, under the name of 

 petrified wood ; fome affirming thefe bodies to have been 

 only pebbles, or flints accidentally formed in this (hape, 

 and with veins refembling thofe of the wood ; and others 

 affirming with equal warmth, that they have been really 

 wood, into which ftony matter has been brought by 

 water. 



Many fubftances, it is certain, have been preferved m the 

 cabinets of coUeftors, under the title of petrified wood, 

 which have very little right to that name. But where the 

 whole outer figure of the wood, the exaft lineaments of the 

 bark, or the fibrofe and fiftular texture of the flris, and the 

 vefliges of the utriculi and tracheae or air-veffels are yet re- 

 maining, and the feveral circles yet vifible, which denoted 

 the feveral years growth of the tree, none can deny fuch 

 fubflances to be real foffil wood. 



Many good arguments have been produced on both fides 

 the queftion, but M. De la Hire has attempted to bring the 

 difpute to a certain conclufion, by means of fome peculiarly 

 happy fpecimens, which were of the palm-tree petrified, 

 found in the defarts of Africa : thefe on comparing them 

 with pieces of the palm-tree cut out of the recent wood, 

 appeared to have every where the beautiful and regular 

 ▼eins of that wood, and left no room to doubt but that 

 they certainly had been once the vegetating wood of that 

 tree, though now converted into hard Hone ; the petrified 

 pieces were perfeft ilone, in all its qualities ; they had its 

 hardnefs, its found when ftruck upon, and were, as many 

 other ftones are, opake in fome places, and tranfparent in 

 others ; they were found on weighing them to be often of 

 the fpecific gravity of recent pieces of the palm wood of 

 the fame dimenfions. 



Father Duchat alfo, an author of unqueftioned credit, 

 affirms, from his own perfonal knowledge, that in the king- 

 dom of Ava there is a river whofe waters petrify recent 

 wood into flint ; and that he has often feen trees Handing in 

 it, whofe bottom part, fo far as covered with the water, has 

 been true flint, while all above was mere dry wood, and fit 

 for firing. Mem. Acad. Par. 1692. 



Wood, Shining. There are a great many things in which 

 a piece of rotten wood that (hines in the dark agrees with 

 a burning coal ; and there are alfo many things in which 

 they differ. They agree in thefe particulars : i . They have 

 light refiding in them, and are not like bodies which are 

 only luminous according to the quantity of light which 

 falls upon them from other bodies, and which they refleft. 

 2. Both (hining wood and burning coals require the prefence 

 of the air to keep them (hining, and both require alfo an 

 air of a confiderable denfity ; and both having been de- 

 prived of their fhining quality by the pumping out of the 

 air, will recover it again on the admitting of frefh air to 

 them. 3. Both of them will eafily be quenched by put- 

 ting them into water, and many other liquors. And, 4. As 

 a live coal will not be extinguilhed by any coldnefs of the 



air, neither will the (hining wood be deprived of its light on 



any additional coldnefs in that elemenf. 



However, they differ in the following particulars : i . A 

 burning coal is eafily put out by comprefTion, the treading 

 on it and fqueezing it together readily divefting it of its 

 light ; on the other hand, compreffion or cruftiing of any 

 kind feems not to have any effeft upon the (hining wood ; 

 its bruifed parts (hining as brightly as its entire ones. If 

 a piece of this (hining wood be fqueezed between two 

 glaffes, this experiment will be moft fairly tried ; and in this 

 cafe, though the contexture of the whole be evidently 

 broken, and the parts feparated, the light is as ftrong in 

 them as while the piece was entire, z. A burning coal ex- 

 tinguifhed by the drawing out of the air will, after a few 

 minutes, be irrecoverable, on the admiffion of air in any 

 manner ; but, on the contrary, the (hining wood, when thus 

 extinguilhed and kept extinft for half an hour, will be im- 

 mediately re-kindled on admitting the air to it. 3. A live 

 coal, included in a fmall glafs, will continue (hining but a 

 few minutes ; but a piece of (hining wood, in the fame cir- 

 cumftances, will continue bright for feveral days. 4. The 

 coal, while it burns, fends forth fmoke and other exhala- 

 tions ; the rotten wood fends out none, and confequently a 

 coal all the while that it is (hining waftes itfelf at a great 

 rate ; but the rotten wood does not wafte itfelf at all. 

 And finally, the burning coal is aftually and vehemently hot; 

 the rotten wood, though it (hines, is not fo much as warm. 

 Phil. Tranf. N° 32. 



The light of (hining flefh and fi(h, when putrefied, i» 

 wholly of the fame nature with that of rotten wood, as to 

 its dependence on the air for its fplendour ; and in the fame 

 manner lofes its light in the exhauited receiver, and regains 

 it on the admiffion of the air into it again, in the fame 

 fudden manner. Phil. Tranf. N°3l. See Light, and 

 Putrefaction. 



Wood, Bog, or Subterraneous, a name given by the inha- 

 bitants of many parts of this kingdom to fuch wood as is 

 found buried in the earth in boggy places, and which is 

 found hard and ftrong at this time. See Foffil WooD/upra, 



We have in the Philofophical Tranfattions ( N" 275. 

 p. 983, &c.) an account of vaft quantities of this fort of 

 wood found under ground in Hatfield Chace. Many of 

 the roots and bodies of trees are found there ; which are 

 of all growths, and are moftly fuch trees as are the growth 

 of our own foil, fuch as oaks, firs, birch, beech, yew, holly, 

 willow, afti, and the like. The roots of all thefe trees 

 ftand in their natural pofitions as when growing, and 

 (land as thick together as they could grow in a foreft. 

 The bodies are ufually broken off, and laid all along jufl 

 by them. 



The large trees are ufually found fallen in a north-eafl 

 direftion, and the fmaller ones lying all ways ; the fir-tree 

 or pitch-tree is more common than any other kind, and is 

 found fometimes of twenty, thirty, and thirty-five yards 

 long, and fo found and firm that many of them have been 

 fold to make mafts for (hips. Oaks have been found of the 

 fame length, though wanting fome yards of their natural 

 tops ; thefe have been fold at ten or fifteen pounds a piece, 

 and are as black as ebony, and very found and lafting in 

 whatever fervice they are put to. The afh-trees do not 

 preferve their firmnefs in this manner, many of them are fo 

 foft that the workman's fpade cuts through them ; and 

 when expofed to the air, they ufually fall to pieces ; but 

 the willows, though a much fofter wood than the aih, pre- 

 ferve their texture, and are found very ilrong and firm. In 

 fome of the fir-trees it is very obfervable, that they have (hot 



out- 



