322 



THE AMERICAN 



all sides, and soon so thoroughly perforate and 

 devour the fruit as to die of starvation. This 

 is a clear case of misdirected instinct in the 

 parent, caused doubtless by confinement. 



From the foregoing facts, it becomes obvious 

 that the rags or the hay-band should be kept 

 around the tree, say from the first of May till the 

 fruit is all otT; and to be thoroughly efTcctual, 

 the insects collected in or under them should 

 be destroyed regularly every fortnight during 

 that time. 



BOOK-WOKMS. 



BY UENUY SlIIMEa, M.D. 



[Fig. 200.] 



In contemplating this subject, it is not my 

 liurpose to dwell on that inappropriate and in- 

 elegant definition of this term given by Webster — 

 " a student closely attached to books, or addicted 

 to study" — but to briefly notice the work of in- 

 sects in some of our libraries: for even our 

 treasured volumes are not exempt from the 

 ever-annoying pest of injurious insects. 



"When the lover of books finds that his choice 

 and elegantly bound volume, wMch was placed 

 in its case for salfe keeping, has been riddled and 

 marred, and may be ruined, by some ruthless 

 worm, he is as much annoyed as the polished 

 gentleman who finds that his fine cloth suit has 

 been the prey of moths; or the careful lady, 

 who finds the fur separated from the sldn of her 

 muff, or cape, by the same relentless foe. 



Books have been infested with caterpillars, 

 mites, and beetles, in foreign countries ; and in 

 our own country books have been occasionally 

 injured by some of these insects ; bu^t, so far as 

 I am informed, insects have not been very annoy- 

 ing in American libraries. Harris, in his general 

 work on injurious insects, makes no allusion to 

 them. I have observed worm-eaten volumes 

 occasionally in some old eastern libraries, espe- 

 cially in New York city. 



Several species of Boring beetles belonging to 

 the family Ptinidm destroy books, as well as 



many other Icinds of property, even furniture, 

 clothing, produce, x^ictures, etc., etc. M. Piegnot 

 informs us that one of these penetrated directly 

 through twenty-seven large quarto volumes in 

 so straight a line that he was able to pass a string 

 directly through and suspend the whole series 

 of volumes. (Horner's Introd. to Bibliography, 

 311.) 



During the past year I was not a little annoyed 

 and surprised to find the larva of a species of 

 Ptinus in some books in my office, from which 

 I have bred the perfect insect, which proves to 

 be the common Brown Ptinus {Ptinus brunneus, 

 Dufs.^P. frontalis, Mels.)* They had injured 

 several of my books, as well as many of the 

 volumes of a small law library that had been 

 recently sliiiiped here from Keokuk, Iowa. Be- 

 sides these, I have only seen one or two volumes 

 in other libraries in Mount Carroll containing 

 the marks of their work. 



They usually operate in leather-bound or half- 

 bound volumes, by boring galleries along in the 

 leather where it is joined to the back of the 

 leaves of the book; most frequently about the 

 linial angle formed by the board-back, and the 

 edge of the back of the leaves. Sometimes they 

 are in the middle of the back, or about the cor- 

 ners of the book-back. They usually bore along 

 quite under the surface of the leather, cutting it 

 almost through ; occasionally a small round hole 

 penetrates through the leather to the outer sur- 

 face. The galleries are filled with the debris. 



Tins account of their work is, as I see it, where 

 the insects are not yet very numerous ; but I can 

 readily foresee that they may, if unmolested, 

 become so numerous as to eat up the binding 

 and entirely ruin the volumes of a library. 



Sheep-bound books seem to be their favorite 

 resort; but I have found one larva in a cloth- 

 bound volume about one of the binding cords 

 where it is attached to the board, in all proba- 

 bility feeding on the paste used in the binding. 



These insects may be well enough in some 

 places, at least on the pins in an entomological 

 collection, but I do not lUve their notions of 

 book-gnawing. So to teach them better habits, 

 I searched carefully and destroyed all I could 

 find, and afterwards subjected the volumes to 

 baking in an oven, being careful not to heat 

 them suflacieutly to burn the leatlier brittle. A 

 better plan would be to put them into some 

 water-tight box, and to immerse the box with 

 its contents in boiling water long enough to heat 

 the books through and through to near 21'2" Fall. 

 If this does not clean them out, I shall brush the 



•Tliisaud the following described instcl ^ 

 termined l)y Dr. Horu. 



; kindly dc- 



