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Few creatures are so well sheltered against their natural enemies as the ship- 
worm, but a small predaceous annelid worm, Lycoris fucaia, gains admission to the 
burrows of European species and devours its host alive. Artificial protection against 
ship-worms' ravages has been sought by various methods. In the first place the 
destruction of the animals has been attempted, and in the second efforts were made 
to preserve the wood from their depredation. 
A strong poison, such as corrosive sublimate, has been poured into the water 
round infected piles. But in the open sea, the poison becomes too diluted to injure 
the molluscs beyond a short radius. 
If a pile be enclosed in a cylinder of pipes or canvas, and the space between 
the cover and the wood be filled with mud or sand, the ship-worms will soon die 
from suffocation. 
By discharge of electricity in the water near infected piles, the worms may 
be poisoned by the volumes of chlorine gas thus produced. 
In saving the wood from the worm, it must be remembered that an opening 
the size of a pinhole is all that the pest needs to gain admission to the timber. 
A primitive and effective way to exclude the ship-worm is to scorch the wood 
with fire till a complete crust of charcoal is obtained. An improvement on this 
treatment is to follow with an application of hot tar, and then a coat of sand. A 
variation of the same idea is to wrap round the piles a mat of canvas and bitumen, 
or a composition of asphalt and netting, or to sheath the piles with metal plates. 
A method of filling the pores of the wood with creosote has not been 
successful. This process spoilt the timber, making it too weak and brittle to be 
hammered by the pile-driver. The dense Australian hardwoods do not admit of 
saturation as do the lighter European pines. 
The whole subject of the destruction of wood by ship-worms is worthy of 
more study than it has hitherto received in Australia. Since conditions are so 
different, it does not follow that observations and deductions made in Europe upon 
northern species are applicable here. It would be useful to record depredations 
made on a timber botanically determined, by a ship-worm conchologically 
determined, whose length and breadth is stated, within certain dates accurately 
noted, in water whose temperature and salinity is known. For lack of such details, 
most observations published on the subject are of slight value, and apparently 
conflicting. 
ILLUSTRATIONS. 
Animal of Sphaeromn (juoyana. Original. 
Wood bored by Sphaeroma qunyanct. Original. 
Animal of Nansitoria thoracites. After Wright. 
Wood bored by Nansiloria edax. Original. 
