DESICCA′TION

Syn. Exsicca′tion. The evaporation or drying off of the aqueous portion of solid bodies. Plants and chemical preparations are deprived of their humidity by exposure to the sun, a current of dry air, an atmosphere rendered artificially dry by sulphuric acid, or by the direct application of heat by means of a water bath, a sand bath, or a common fire. Planks and timber are now seasoned, on the large scale, in this way, by which a condition may be produced, in 2 or 3 days, which on the old system is barely attainable in as many years. “Endeavours were made to enforce the importance and value of the desiccation of woods to the builder, cabinet maker, architect, and civil engineer, so long back as 1843, but without succe . Since that period certain persons have availed themselves, commercially, of our ideas and experiments on the subject, without any acknowledgment, either verbal or pecuniary.” (Cooley.)