552 
Insects  Destructive  to  Books. 
f  Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
\   December,  1910. 
this  statement  is  true.  Those  in  charge  of  collections  in  the  temper- 
ate regions,  whose  volumes  are  not  as  rapidly  destroyed,  are  apt  to 
doubt  the  enormous  destruction  of  books  each  year  by  practically 
unseen  life. 
Again,  that  this  destruction  is  great  enough  to  cause  alarm,  is 
indicated  by  the  number  of  prizes  offered  by  various  bodies  for  means 
to  prevent  this  never-ceasing  destruction.  Prizes  were  offered  by 
the  "  Royal  Society  at  Gottingen  "  in  1774.  the  "  International  Li- 
brary Congress  "  in  1903.  etc.,  but  as  yet  no  satisfactory  results 
have  been  obtained.  I  hope  before  long  to  be  able  to  present  to 
the  world  the  cause  of  these  ravages  and  a  means  of  preventing 
them. 
Those  who  have  read  articles  upon  the  destruction  of  books 
and  papers  by  insects  must  have  noticed  that  in  almost  all  the  papers 
the  author  has  simply  stated  that  the  insects  were  after  the  paste  used 
in  the  binding ;  and  most  of  the  prizes  that  have  been  offered  from 
time  to  time  have  the  same  object  in  view.  If  the  paste  is  the 
object  of  attack,  why  is  it  that  photographs,  which  are  fastened  to 
the  cardboard  by  means  of  paste,  are  not  eaten  ? 
Although  some  of  these  writers  have  stated  that  the  bindings 
were  bored  or  gnawed,  a  gallery  leading  from  an  opening  made 
on  the  outside  towards  the  interior  of  the  book :  that  the  glazed  sur- 
face of  the  paper  was  eaten  off ;  that  in  a  few  cases  that  portion  of 
the  page  which  had  received  the  impress  of  the  printer's  ink  only 
had  been  eaten,  making  the  page  look  as  though  the  letters  had  been 
cut  out  with  a  punch ;  and  again,  that  a  cavity  had  been  found  in 
the  interior  of  the  book,  without  showing  by  what  means  the  insect 
was  able  to  obtain  access :  not  one  of  them,  as  far  as  I  have  been 
able  to  find,  has  reasoned  upon  the  question  that  there  might  be  other 
causes  for  these  ravages  of  the  insects  upon  books  besides  the 
hackneyed  phrase,  "  that  they  are  after  the  paste  used  in  the  bind- 
ing, in  order  to  obtain  the  starch  contained  in  it." 
Having  read  hundreds  of  articles  and  notes  upon  this  subject, 
and  having  had  the  pleasure,  from  my  standpoint — but  not  that  of 
the  librarian,  of  examining  many  hundreds  of  volumes  of  ancient 
and  recent  date  of  publication,  with  bindings  made  of  different 
leathers,  paper  made  of  rag.  wood,  and  other  materials,  my  atten- 
tion was  before  long  attracted  by  the  fact,  that  in  the  great  majority 
of  books  examined  no  attempt  was  made  by  the  insects  to  eat  the 
paste  used  in  the  binding,  and  also  by  the  many  cases  in  which  a 
