On preserving Timher, Sfc. 



rendering them immediately fit for use, if cut down even in a state of 

 active vegetation, are circumstances well worthy of public attention. 

 The method, I believe at present adopted, for preserving the wood of 

 public buildings from attacks of the white ant, is by the application of 

 mineral oil; and its effects are but temporary, as it appears to depend 

 upon its disagreeable odour — as it is only by the repeated rene'^ al of 

 the application that the wood is protected — but by using in its steud a 

 solution of the muriate of mercury — no repetition of the process would 

 be necessary — either to guard against the destructive effects of time, or 

 the more sudden and injurious inroads of the white ant. 



Its power over cloth is equally beneficial, and it has been found a 

 perfect preservation against mildew.* As few tents become unser- 

 viceable from the simple wear and tear of use, I feel assured if the 

 outer cloth alone, where the decay almost invariably begins, were 

 steeped in the solution, it would, at a very trifling expence, add many 

 years to its durability. 



With reference to the question whether such an active agent, as we 

 know muriate of mercury to be, could be so extensively used with im- 

 punity, and whether would it not, by becoming volatilized, impregnate 

 the atmosphere of the rooms or tent with poisonous qualities, I am not 

 able from personal experience to reply ; but, from experiments which 

 have been made to ascertain that point in England, I do not conceive 

 that any injurious consequences would result from its use — more espe- 

 cially when applied to timber, cotton carpets or tent cloth, as the 

 effects of the mineral upon both of these substances is to enter into 

 chemical combination with them — and repeated washing in no ways 

 diminishes its preservative power. In support of that opinion, I may 

 mention that a vessel was built in England entirely of timber, prepared 

 in the above way, with the sails and cordage also steeped in the solu- 

 tion, and that no inconvenience was experienced by the workmen in 

 preparing the materials, or in building the vessel, or by the crew who 

 inhabited her after she was finished. 



The above remarks make no pretension to originality ; the subject 

 is one which has excited much attention in England, although I am 

 not aware that it is one generally known in India. In submitting 

 them I have been only anxious to give a knowledge of the facts more 

 extended circulation, in a country where decay of property is so general 

 and so rapid, from causes which muriate of mercury possesses the 

 power of counteracting. 

 Jkladura, 1838. 



Vid* Uniied Service Journal on. Kyau'i patent. 



