, 1885-10-17
oecAYlNo WOOD DANGEROUS.
L Deleterious Influence on the Health
Several Experiments.

NtFerhl experiments
Isauitary Engineer
1t Is generally admitted that the vi.
entity Of large quantities of decaying
wood is dangerous to health, but the
evidence as to this is seanty, 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 whore it is present in large guam
titles.
IL is n fact that, in a number of in
stances, the prevalence of yellow foyer
in epidemic form has been connected
with the presence of decaying timber in
or beneath piers and wharyes, or of
masses of rotting sh~avings, chips, saw
dust, etc. This was the case in Provi-
dence, Baltimore, New York city, and
Norfolk, and the presence of rotten
timbers or planking in yellow-feyer
ships has been noted so often that by
many it is thought to be something
AAA q hAtA0 ARAAA1AAlhA0s
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. Decaying wood pave
ments or sidewalks have been suspected
of causing malarial affections in Mem
phis, in Washington, 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
decompose it, producing phenomena OF
putrefaction and giving rise to more or
less offensive odors. Professor Brewer,
of New Haven, has reported the results
of n 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 CAV 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 to
a year, when they were raised,
piled in the air, and thoroughly dried.
Flooring lumber thus treated is little liz
able to decay, for the simple reason that
it contains little or nothing that is fit
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, so
far as we know, are not directly or in
directly injurious to health. We can
only infer that IL will also support the
life Of other organisms which may be in
jurious-the germs of specific disease
and conclude that it is sufficiently prob
able that this is the case, to warrant the
giving Of special attention TO this sub
iect in Investigations rs to the cause of
the local prevalence of certain diseases.