Miscellaneous. 



158 



[February, 1910. 



economic point of view it is the health 

 of the labour force that has to be con- 

 sidered, and to boil all the water for 

 their use is impracticable, 



For Europeans it is different. They 

 can ensure that water is first filtered 

 and then boiled, but they must not rely 

 on the filter, and must boil the water 

 after not before filtration. 



PRESERVING BOOKS IN THE 

 TROPICS. 



(From the Agricultural News, Vol. VIII., 

 No. 197, November 13, 1909.) 

 Mr. H. Maxwell-Lefroy, m.a,, f.e.s., 

 F.z.s., Entomologist to the Government 

 of India (sometime Entomologist to this 

 Department), gives, in The Eastern 

 Printers' Yearbook, several precautious 

 against the destruction of books and 

 papers by insects in the tropics. As 

 some of these are comparatively new, 

 the following extracts are taken from 

 his article : — 



The most destructive insect to books is 

 the book beetle (Sitodrepa panicea). 

 This is a small brown beetle, which is only 

 one stage of this insect's life, the greater 

 part of the destruction being caused by 

 the small white grub, which is one of the 

 earlier stages. The grub eats tunnels in 

 the books, feeding upon the paper or 

 binding, eating straight ahead through 

 the pages, but always keeping inside ; 

 naturally it can feed undisturbed only 

 in a book which is not in use, and it 

 is in books that are left neglected on 

 the shelf that this insect is found. The 

 grub is white, with the head brown, 

 and the body is clothed with short, 

 brown hairs. It hatches from eggs laid 

 by the beetle, and after some weeks of 

 active life, transforms into the dormant 

 chrysalis, from which, after a little 

 time, comes the beetle. It is the beetle 

 that starts the mischief, by eating into 

 the book and laying eggs there, the 

 grubs then continuing it. The insect 

 is probably an introduced one, having 

 been brought most likely in books or 

 merchandise from Europe ; it is common 

 practically all over the world, and feeds 

 not only in books, paper, cardboard, 

 and similar materials, but in dry wood, 

 in the cane that furniture is made of, 

 and in dried foodstuffs. 



Where books or papers are constantly 

 in use, or being moved, the insect is 

 not generally found ; when it is found, 

 there is only one radical cure, which is 

 to go over all the books or stocks of 

 papers and search out the insects ; in 

 bad cases of attack, where this is not 



possible, it is necessary to clear out 

 all infested articles, clean the room 

 thoroughly, and putting the articles in 

 a tight box or cupboard, put sufficient 

 carbon bisulphide or benzine in to 

 thoroughly impregnate everything with 

 the fumes, and kill the insects. At least 

 one pint of the fluid used must be put 

 into every 200 cubic feet of space, and 

 it is necessary to keep the infested 

 articles exposed for twenty-four hours, 

 and to take precautions that no light is 

 brought near while the fumes can be 

 smelt. 



The above procedure is necessary only 

 with very bad cases ; as a rule, it is 

 sufficient to deal with each attacked 

 book separately. Preservation is of 

 course better than cure, and the general 

 precautions suggested below are the 

 best for this insect, as for others. 



Another injurious insect is the com" 

 mon cockroach : the commonest cock" 

 roach in Indian houses is Periplaneta 

 australasim, the big brown cockroach ; 

 but there are several other household 

 species. These have a fondness for the 

 colouring matter of cloth bindings, 

 especiallyof certain reds and other tints ; 

 they feed at night and nibble off the sur- 

 face of the binding, greatly disfiguring 

 the books. The preparation given below 

 is a certain preventive of damage ; 

 where cockroaches are, however, very 

 plentiful, a liberal application of borax, 

 or the provision of plenty of a mixture 

 of borax (one part) and syrup (two 

 parts), smeared thickly on pieces of card 

 or tin and put under furniture and in 

 dark corners, is a great check on their 

 numbers. Borax is a specific poison to 

 cockroaches and should be used freely. 



We know of only one other class of 

 insect injurious to paper and books ; 

 these are the curious shiny insects 

 known as ' silver fish ' which are so com- 

 mon in cupboards and in dark, dusty 

 places. They cannot injure books or 

 papers except by destroying the glaze, 

 which they nibble, spoiling the surface 

 of the better classes of glazed papers ; 

 they are also fond of starch and eat the 

 starch used in binding books or papers 

 where they can reach it. Against these 

 insects, the following general pre- 

 cautions are desirable : — 



(1) Add a little blue stone (sulphate of 

 copper) to all starch paste ; about half 

 an ounce to a pound of paste is suffi- 

 cient. It makes the starch distasteful 

 to silver fish and to beetles. 



(2) If possible, keep books and papers 

 in clean cases, with plenty of flake 

 naphthalene or naphthalene balls. We 

 use flake naphthalene liberally with all 



