The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1885-10-30
oEcAYINe WOOD DANGEROUS.
ITS DeIeterious Influence on the Health
Several Experiments
Sanitary Engineerl

ITS DeIeterious Influence on the Health
Several Experiments
lSanitary Engineer.l
It is generally admitted that the vi
cinity of large quantities of decaying
wood is dangerous to health, but the
evidence as TO this is scanty, and by
no means definite, nor have we
anything but more or less prob
able theories as to how disease is
produced in this way. Yellow fever,
typhoid fever, and various forms of
malarial fever have been attributed to
this cause not that rotting wood is sup
posed to be alone sufficient to produce
them, but that their specific causes seem
TO flourish and increase when intro
duced where it is present in large guam
titles.
tits fact that, in number of in
stances, the prevalence of yellow fever
ia epidemic form has been connected
or beneath piers and wharves, or of
masses of rotting shavings, chips, saw
dust, etc. This was the case in Proyi-
dence, Baltimore, New York city, and
Norfolk, and the presence of rotten
Simhers or planking in yellOW-fever
ahips has been noted so often that by
many 1t is thought to be something
more than mere coincidence.
Collections of damp and decaying
saWdust have been in a number of in
stances charged with the production of
malarial disease, and in some of the
northwestern states, and especially in
Michigan, the evils from this cause
have been the subject of discussion by
sanitary officials. Deeaying wood pave
ments or sidewalks have bCs1n suspected
= -, r.frn fav,,
phis, in W ashington, and elsewhere, al
though the relation between cause and
effect does not appear to have been
clearly established.
We do know, however, that green
wood contains a very considerable
amount of albuminoid matter, which
affords food to micro organisms which
deeompose it, producing phenomena OF
putrefaction and giving rise to more OF
less offensive odors. Professor Brewer,
of New Haven, has reported the results
of a number of experiments on the re-
suits of soaking green woods Of various
kind in cold water, and thus removing
the albuminoid matter.
That green lumber contains some
thing which greatly favors its decay,
and which may be removed by long
continued soaking in water, was well
known many years ago, and gave rise
to the process of water seasoning, in
which the planks we're sunk in large
bodies of water and kept i'm
.mersed for from six months tC
year, when they were raised
piled in the air, and thoroughly dried.
tIooring lumber thus treated is little Ii
able to decay, for the simple reason thai
it contains little or nothing that is fiji
for the food of the micro organisms and
fungi that cause decay. The albuminoid
material which may be thus extracted
from wood appears to support the life
Of various micro organisms which, 81
far as we know, are not directly or in
directly injurious to health. We car
only infer that it will also support thu
life Of other organisms which may be in
iurious-the germs of specific disease
and conclude that it is sufficiently prob
able that this is the case, towaTrant thu
giving of special attention to this sub
iect in Investigations as to the canse 0
the local prevalence of certain diseases