We would warn the readers of Mr Monteath’s volume, that his calculations and statements regarding the worth of coppice and timber generally, seem more suited to flatter the owner’s wishes than to be useful to him as a merchant; or to be adjusted to the value of money during the late war—not to the present value. We also do not very well comprehend his re-establishment or resuscitation of life in dead trees. We observe several other slight errors, such as the duration of his paling,—and the affirmation that the sap-wood will not extend so as to cover over the section of a pruned branch which contains any red or matured wood. Most readers will be able to detect such errors as these. In taking leave of Mr Monteath’s volume, we would offer our acknowledgment for the attention he has bestowed on the subject of the seasoning of timber, by steaming with extract of wood (pyroligneous acid) and by scorching, as prevention of dry rot. The greatest objection we see to his plan is, that all timber dried quickly is liable to crack and split, and loses a considerable portion of its {157} toughness and elasticity; at least, timber when dried slowly is harder and stronger than when dried quickly, the dryness in both cases being carried to the same extent. The comparative strength of timber scorched and timber not scorched, after both are soaked in water, as in the lower timbers and plank of vessels, should be subjected to experiment. Our author’s directions (although the practice is also not new) to season larch by peeling off the bark one or more years previous to cutting, in order to prevent it from warping or twisting in framed housework; and his hints recommending stripping off the bark from most kinds of timber a season previous to cutting, are also deserving of notice. We greatly wonder that something efficacious has not been done in regard to dry rot by our Navy Board, and consider the subject of such importance, that we think a rot-prevention officer or wood physician should be appointed to each war vessel from the time her first timber is laid down, to be made in some shape accountable if rot to any extent should ever occur; and that this officer should be regularly bred to his profession at an institution established for the study of this branch of science at the King’s largest building yard. Perhaps it might be as well to endow several professors’ chairs at the universities to follow {158} out and lecture on this science, as being of far more importance than many which are already endowed. We think that steeping in fresh water pits for several years, till a kind of acetous fermentation take place in the timber, or till it become of a blue colour; or in tan-pits; or for a shorter period in strong brine pits; or even salting the timber like herrings, after it is blocked out; or forcing pyroligneous acid, or composition of chlorine, or other solution, antiseptic or obnoxious to life, into the pores of the