568 



DETAILS OF CONSTRUCTION. 



fungi, the seeds of which are continually 

 floating in the atmosphere, requiring 

 only a proper nidus upon which to 

 settle and commence their vegetable 

 existence. These minute plants spread 

 with vast rapidity, and, in their endeavour 

 to reach the light, force their way through 

 the fibres of the wood, until at last, by 

 the combined agency of animal and vege- 

 table life, the timber rots, and speedily 

 becomes perfectly useless, — and this is 

 increased in proportion to the amount of 

 alburnum of which the log or plank may 

 be composed. 



Various methods have been devised for 

 arresting this process, of which we shall 

 briefly mention the most important. 



Xi/an's patent preparation, which con- 

 sisted in steeping the timber in a strong 

 solution of corrosive sublimate, was for 

 some years looked upon by many as a 

 complete remedy against decay. Expe- 

 rience has not, however, proved this to 

 be the case. For ourselves, we never had 

 much faith in this nostrum ; and in every 

 experiment we tried, we found the timber 

 subjected to the process decay at least 

 as soon as that of equal quality, and 

 exposed to the same action, that was not 

 prepared at all. The very conclusive 

 report drawn up of the experiments 

 made by the Duke of Portland at Wel- 

 beck, as well as of those made by Earl 

 Manvers at Thorsby Hall, go far to con- 

 firm us in our opinion. In the latter 

 case, the effects produced on plants set 

 in houses, the timber of which had been 

 Kyanised, were such as led to its disuse 

 in that establishment. 



In the extensive establishment of the 

 Messrs Loddige at Hackney, Kyanising 

 was carried to a very considerable extent; 

 and although these gentlemen appeared 

 to be of opinion that the process tended 

 to increase the durability of the timber, 

 yet the destruction caused to their plants 

 was such as might well deter any one 

 from using it for such purposes. 



It is but an act of justice, however, to 

 state that other opinions have been pub- 

 lished as to its effects on the roots of 

 plants. In the gardens of the Duke of 

 Northumberland at Sion, for example, 

 cucumber boxes prepared in this way 

 had no bad effect upon the plants ; and 

 Mr Parsons, late clerk of the works there, 

 speaks of it in the highest terms as a 



preservative of the timber, though he 

 says nothing as to its effects on vegeta- 

 tion. 



Our own observations on it during the 

 last twelve years at Dalkeith, where it 

 has been tried in the Park and in build- 

 ings to the fullest extent, have led us 

 to the conclusion that it does not tend to 

 the preservation of the timber at all. 

 Large piles of it, taken from the Chain 

 Pier at Newhaven, pieces of which are 

 now in our possession, are much decayed 

 after four years' exposure to the sea- 

 water ; — but those parts which were 

 Kyanised are completely free from the 

 sea-worm ; nor have shell-fish or marine 

 plants attached themselves to these por- 

 tions, while that which was not Kyanised 

 is completely covered with them. 



A series of experiments was made so 

 long ago as 1842 in the gardens of the 

 London Horticultural Society, to test the 

 merits of Kyan's patent. The following 

 were the results : " In one experiment, 

 a small portable greenhouse was prepared 

 with Kyanised wood, and, thus pickled, 

 was introduced into the atmosphere of 

 plants under hand-glasses, but without 

 injurious effects in such cases. But when 

 Kyanised wood, or shavings moistened 

 with corrosive sublimate, or crude mer- 

 cury, or salts of that metal, were intro- 

 duced into vessels containing plants 

 exposed to the dampness and high tem- 

 perature of a hothouse, in every such 

 case the plants became sickly, recovered 

 when removed from the influence of the 

 mercurial vapour, and sickened again 

 when again exposed to it." — Proceedings 

 of the Horticultural Society, 1841, No. 

 14. Subsequent experiments also prove 

 that " any timber steeped in corrosive 

 sublimate gives out a vapour highly 

 injurious to all plants which it comes in 

 contact with." 



By the "Agri-horticultural Society of 

 India's Transactions," we learn that fences 

 of bamboo which had been Kyanised had 

 stood for three seasons ; whilst parts of 

 the same fence, that had not been sub- 

 jected to that process, had to be repeat- 

 edly renewed during the same period. 

 " The proportion of oxy muriate of mer- 

 cury used was about 1 lb. to 15 gallons 

 of water, and the bamboos remained in 

 steep from ten to twelve days." 



In our own experience, which has ex- 



