304 TlMEHRI. 
in such a shape that they may stand on their own base 
without requiring to be rested against a wall. It is better 
to place the shelves so that the light may fall on the 
edges of the books, instead of on their backs, as the 
bindings will be preserved against bleaching by this 
arrangement, and there will be less harbour for the 
noxious insefts who " love darkness rather than light". 
In such a position, with a free circulation of air on both 
sides, there is little to be feared from damp and mould, 
unless the shelves are on the ground floor. 
Before leaving this part of the subje6l I cannot too 
emphatically condemn the carelessness of some of the 
publishers of the day in sending pasted and wire-bound 
books to a damp tropical climate. That such works as 
Steven's " Flint Chips" and Boddam-Whetham's 
" Roraima" should be stitched (if it can be called so) 
with wire is simply disgraceful. The wire very soon 
rusts and the book falls to pieces, sometimes, before it 
leaves the booksellers. Authors generally desire that 
their works shall live after them ; a little more attention 
to bindings would help in one way to that end. Many of 
the most elegant and showy bindings become unsightly in 
a few months, from want of attention to the faft that 
book-binders' paste decomposes immediately in a damp 
atmosphere. 
Coming now to inse6ls pests, the nastiest and most 
disgusting is the Cockroach. It is omnivorous, but has 
its partialities, among which nothing is so pleasant to its 
palate as the fancy bindings which decorate some fine 
illustrated books. The publisher sends it out in a gay 
cover with bevelled edges and a wealth of gilding, placing 
the volume in a card-board box to preserve it. But the 
