$98 On Preventing the Decay of Wood . 
No. 61. 
%in Inquiry into the Causes of the Decay of Wood , and 
the Means of preventing it. By Charles IL Parry, 
M. D.* 
THE power of wood in different forms to supply luxu- 
ry, to promote science, and to guard and prolong human 
life, has made the means of preserving it from decay 
highly interesting to mankind. With this view various 
premiums have been offered by this and other economical 
societies. The object of the following discussion is to 
suggest the best means of prevention, chiefly by inquiring 
into the nature and sources of the evil against which it is 
intended to guard. 
Wood, when killed by being separated from its root, 
is subject to gradual destruction from two causes,— rot- 
ting, and the depredations of insects. 
Of the rot there are two supposed kinds, as they 
affect wood, first, in the open air, or secondly, under 
cover. 
The first is that which, in the terms of our premium, 
Class 7* No. 3, is said to occur to “barn and other 
outside doors, weather-boarding, gates, stiles, and im- 
plements of husbandry To which, if there were any 
need of this minute specification, might have been add- 
ed posts, rails, paling, water-shoots, and various other 
objects. 
The second is well known under the name of the 
dry-rot, the cause and prevention of which are the sub- 
jects of a premium by the Society of Arts in London. 
Animal and vegetable substances possess certain com- 
mon properties and movements, which constitute what is 
* Nicholson, vol. 19, p. 328. JFrom Papers of the Bath and West of England 
Society , vol. 11, p. 226. 
