Essay on the causes of the dry rot in buildings : contained in a series of letters addressed to George Ernest James Wright, Esq. : including some observations on the cure of the dry rot, and on the admission of air into the parts of buildings affected by that disease / by John Papworth.

  • John Buonarotti Papworth
Date:
1803
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Essay on the causes of the dry rot in buildings : contained in a series of letters addressed to George Ernest James Wright, Esq. : including some observations on the cure of the dry rot, and on the admission of air into the parts of buildings affected by that disease / by John Papworth. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    the air will then increase the disease, and draw into fuller growth the fungus it has not sufficiently the power to destroy. We may then observ'e, that, if dry air be properly admitted in a quantity adequate to cause that absorption, it will necessarily exhaust and destroy the fungus j but it should be considered whe- ther at the same time the disease may not be conveyed into other parts of the building by the insinuative property of the air, in which innumerable seeds of the plantul^e are supported, after being separated from the fungus over which it has passed, while it is scarcely possible to admit a sufficient quantity of air calculated to destroy the fungus. Air, in passing through damps, will partake of their humidity; it therefore soon becomes inadequate to the salutary task for which it is designed. Owing to this circum- stance, air has been frequently admitted into the affected parts of a building without any ultimate success :—too often, instead of injuring the fungus, it has considerably assisted its vegetation, and infected with the disease other parts of the building which would otherwise, probably, have remained without injury. The antidote to the vegetable dry rot proceeding from the earth, the brick-work, and the timber, must not always therefore be sought in common air. With regard to the fungus produced on the timber by putrescent vapour, the admission of air may more reasonably be supposed to succeed, if administered in the early stages of the disease, as the fungus does not so speedily penetrate the wood, and absorb the moisture in such large quantities, as when generated from other causes; and when the vapour is dried up, there is no longer a suitable recipient for the germs that are scat- tered
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