352 The Decay of Wood Carvings. 



THE DECAY OF WOOD CAEVINGS. 



The Committee of Council for Education, laudably anxious to 

 preserve the excellent specimens of wood carving in the collec- 

 tion at South Kensington, appointed a Commission to report 

 upon the cause of the decay of such objects, and to suggest 

 the best means of prevention and restoration. That report 

 has just been published, and contains matter which will inte- 

 rest every possessor of ornamental wood-work. 



Professor Westwood stated to the Commission that the 

 insects most destructive to wood furniture belonged to three 

 species of beetles, of the family Ptinidce, and known under the 

 names of P Minus pectinicomis, Anooium strioium, and Anobium 

 tessellatum. ". The first of them," says the Professor, " is 

 about one-fourth of an inch in length, and the male is distin- 

 guished by its beautiful branched antennse ; the second, which 

 is by far the commonest and most destructive, is about one- 

 eighth of an inch long, and of a brown colour, with rows of 

 small dots down the back ; and the third is about one-third to 

 one-fourth of an inch long, the back varied with lighter and 

 darker shades of brown scales." The females deposit their 

 eggs in crevices of wood- work, and the grubs, which exceed 

 the insects in destructiveness, are small and fleshy creatures, 

 resembling the grubs of the cockchafer in miniature. These 

 grubs burrow in the direction of the fibre, if the wood be new; 

 but when old and dry, they proceed in all directions. The 

 perfect insects come forth in the first hot days of summer; and 

 this fact should prompt those whom they injure to look for 

 them and destroy them at the right time. So rapid are the 

 destructive powers possessed by these creatures, that Professor 

 Westwood adduces the case of a new bedstead which was 

 completely reduced to powder in three years. 



They do not like wood saturated with creasote, solution of 

 quassia, or corrosive sublimate ; but it is not always possible 

 to subject the materials of which ornamental articles is com- 

 posed to those processes. 



In dealing with specimens that had been assailed, the 

 Commissioners found that some insects could not survive pro- 

 longed exposure to the vapour of benzine or chloroform. They 

 placed small articles in a glass case containing small saucers, 

 holding bits of sponge, saturated with these fluids. Carbolic 

 acid (or creasote) did not destroy the insects when used in the 

 same manner. 



A solution of corrosive sublimate in methylated spirit, was 

 found by the Commission to give an appearance of varnish not 

 always desirable. Mr, Peter Graham exhibited specinuns that 



