It is essential to observe that all methods of protecting timber depend for their success upon the skilful and conscientious manner in which they are applied; for, as they involve chemical actions on a large scale, their efficiency must depend upon the observance of the minute practical precautions required to exclude any disturbing causes. In the case of creosoting: to distil the creosote, to draw the sap or other moisture from the wood, and subsequently to inject the creosote in a proper manner, it is necessary that the operations should be carried into effect under the supervision of experienced persons of high character. [Illustration: PATENT PRESERVATIVE SYSTEM. Messrs. John Bethell and Cos. Timber preserving apparatus.] Mr. Bethell’s process has been and still is being tested on the Indian railways. According to Dr. Cleghorn, it appears that many of the creosoted sleepers have, however, “been found decayed in the centre, the interior portion being scooped out, leaving nothing but a deceptive shell, in some instances not more than ½ inch in thickness,” but he does not state whether the sleepers were prepared in England or in India; because, if prepared in India, it is probable that some of the hard Indian woods, into which it is not possible to get creosote or any other preservative fluid, had been used. Mr. Burt, who has large timber-preserving works in London for creosoting, stated about eight years since, that after an experience of twenty years, during which time he had sent over one million and a half sleepers to India alone, besides having prepared many thousand loads of timber for other purposes, he could safely assert that the instances of failure had been rare and isolated. A section of a piece of timber impregnated with creosote presents some curious and very distinctive characteristics, according to the duration of the process of injection and amount of tar injected. In every case the injected tar follows the lines and sinuosities of the longitudinal fibres. When injected in sufficient quantity it fills the pores altogether; when, on the contrary, the process has been incompletely performed, which, however, is generally sufficient, the tar accumulates in the transverse sections, and plugs the channels that give access to deleterious agents.