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near the surface to turn away, without making a visible 
hole. The female rarely leaves the burrows, but lays her 
eggs inside them, the only holes apparent being those by 
which the males have escaped. Thus it may happen that 
a beam of a house apparently strong, and in which only a 
few small holes are to be seen, is in reality a mere shell full of 
dust. My cousin, the late Mr. Ashworth, once shewed me a 
large box full of wooden silk bobbins. They were of a size 
not often wanted, and had remained in this box about two 
years ; when required, it was found the whole of the wood 
had been eaten by Anobium striatum, leaving the exterior 
of the bobbins of the thickness of paper, and apparently 
quite perfect. 
No wood appears too hard or too dry for these creatures. 
A piece of furniture which had been in my possession many 
years, and had belonged to my father, was attacked by this 
species. The first intimation I had was the finding of some 
of the beetles inside the window of my bedroom, and on 
searching I found the holes from which they had escaped. 
I at once had the wood washed with a solution of bichloride 
of mercury, and the holes well saturated with it, and have 
since seen no more. 
In a private house the presence of this beetle may be 
soon seen, but in a church or public building much injury 
may be done before it is discerned. When it is, the timber 
infected should, if possible, be removed, or well washed with 
bichloride of mercury and mineral naptha. It should also 
be covered with a fine net in the month of May, so that the 
beetles then assuming a perfect state and emerging from 
the timber could be prevented going to other parts of the 
building. 
The injury to timber is caused almost entirely by the 
larvae, the perfect insects simply drilling holes to make their 
escape on their arrival at maturity. Remembering this, 
and knowing the habits of the various species, and the 
