DELIQUESCENCE OF BODIES. 
57 
fabric would be much stronger with at least one-fourth less On the dun 
wood j and not only would the building of the ship be much aud 
r -I-. . a . . • i r . . . , . . melioration 
facilitated, but in the event of requiring to shift either timbers timber for 
or plank, from accident, it might be done as simply as shifting naval . c o«- 
the stave of a cask. And if ships so constructed, when not 
wanted for active service, had the masts taken out, and were 
placed in a covered dry dock, and kept well aired by opening 
a plank or two on each side the bottom, the duration would be 
infinitely increased. 
The benefits that would arise by bringing such resources into 
action, and rendering ships of war more lasting, thereby reduc- 
ing the consumption of timber and all other materials, with the 
saving in workmanship, require no comment. The great 
political object would be obtained, of having ships at all times 
ready for service, when those constructed of perishable 
materials were rebuilding or repairing. For if the duration 
were in future doubled, it is evident that not only half the 
number of ships would be required, which might all be con- 
structed in a Royal building yard, and half the expence of building 
and repairs on ships would be saved, and all other fabricks in 
which timber is used, the amount of which by the Navy 
Estimates for 3 813 is 3, 667*0001. And as the consumption of 
timber would also be reduced one half, only half the quantity of 
land would suffice to support our Navy. 
XI. 
Extract from a Memoir upon the Deliquescence of Bodies , ly 
M. Gay Lussac*. 
O N the 17th of May last, I communicated to the Society of The deli- 
Arcueil, some observations on the property of bodies to quescence of 
, . - . . , • , , . .. . . , . bodies not yet 
attract the moisture of the air, which chemists distinguish parti- re g U iarly 
cularly by the word deliquescence. This property, though it still enquired into. 
requires examination, may be referred to general principles, 
according to which it can easily be determined what are the 
bodies which possess it, the variations to which it is subject, 
* Annales de Chiraie, LXXXII, 171. 
according 
