374 
On Preserving Larch Wood. 
which have lately fallen under our immediate observation, and 
which prove in the most satisfactory manner that wood, even of 
the most perishable description, may be preserved for many years 
previous to use, by soaking it for some days in a cold solution of 
lime-water. 
The wood-work of a house used by the clerk of the lime- works 
at Closeburn, which has been erected upwards of forty years, and 
was constructed of common Scotch fir, of twenty-eight years growth, 
raised on the estate of Closeburn, discovers no symptoms of decay, 
either from being worm-eaten or otherwise injured by time. It 
was perfectly free of worms, and is nearly as sound as the day it 
was first put up. But in the smaller wood of this roof, we per- 
ceived many marks of the ravages of the worms upon it. These 
insects had penetrated it in every direction, and injured it to 
that degree that it must soon be replaced by fresh wood. This 
can be accounted for, why the large wood had escaped, and 
the smaller timber had fallen a prey to these tiny destructive 
creatures, that the larger timber had been soaked in the cold water 
solution of lime, but that the smaller had not undergone the same 
treatment. 
The following detail is the method which the late Sir Charles 
G. S. Menteath employed to prepare his wood for building 
purposes. 
It may, however, before proceeding to relate it, be remarked, 
that wood contains saccharine and albuminous substances. The 
latter, viz., the albumen, when the wood is placed in a damp and 
confined situation, very readily decomposes and passes into the 
disease called " dry rot," which proceeds from a plant of the fun- 
gus family, produced by the decayed rotten wood. The albumen, 
as well as the saccharine ingredients of the wood, furnish the food 
of the worm. Its parent, either a fly or a beetle, led by instinct 
to this already-prepared magazine of food for its offspring, lays its 
eggs in the wood. These eggs in due course of time give birth 
to the worms or maggots, which as soon as they issue from them 
commence their devastations upon the wood. 
Lime-water is found to produce great changes on these vegetable 
elements of wood, the albumen and saccharine matters. Whether 
the alkaline properties of the lime destroy them, or enter into new 
combinations, is not well ascertained. These effects the chemist, 
perhaps, will be able to explain. Certain, however, it is, from 
the valuable instance of wood steeped in a cold solution of lime- 
water as seen in the roof at Closeburn lime-works, that wood, even 
of the most perishable kind, when well soaked in such a solution, 
is freed from tlie destruction of the worm — is also less liable to 
be attacked by dr-y rot — and is rendered durable and sound for 
years. 
