THE 
EMPORIUM 
OF 
ARTS AND SCIENCES. 
Vol. £.] March, 1813. [No. 11* 
NO. 61 . 
Jin Inquiry into the Causes of the Decay of Wood , and 
the Means of preventing it . By Charles H. Parry., 
M. D. 
(Concluded from page 309.) 
WHEN wood decays under cover, that condition is 
usually called the dry-rot. Let us examine the circum- 
stances in which this change takes place. 
It affects the interior doors, shelves, laths which sub- 
divide the layers of wine, and all other wood work in 
certain cellars; beams and rafters which support the 
roofs of close passages ; joists laying on or near the earth ; 
the wainscoting of large rooms, little inhabited, in old 
and especially single houses ; and wood in various other 
situations of a similar kind, which need not be particu- 
larized. In some of these cases, while one sample or 
portion of wood shall suffer the dry-rot, another speci- 
men or portion shall remain unchanged. In other in- 
stances, wood of various kinds and qualities has been 
successively employed, and all has alike suffered. Dur- 
ing the stages of change, a crop of inucor or mould, and 
Vol. n. r r 
