Am.  Jour.  Pharm.  ) 
December,  1910.  j 
Insects  Destructive  to  Books. 
553 
cavity  or  cavities  were  found  in  the  interior  of  the  volume  without 
showing  the  means  by  which  the  insects  obtained  access  thereto. 
Looking  at  the  various  ways  in  which  books  were  ravaged,  and 
knowing  from  my  own  studies  and  observations  in  entomology 
that  the  insects  have  wonderful  instinctive  powers,  which  in  a  num- 
ber of  cases  could  very  easily  be  classed  as  intelligence,  I  have  come 
to  the  conclusion  that  there  must  be  other  reasons  besides  the 
desire  for  paste,  to  cause  these  various  depredations,  and  I  have 
asked  myself  this  question:  "As  we  know  that  the  dog  and  cat, 
when  sick,  look  for  certain  herbs,  grasses,  and  putrid  animal  matter, 
being  directed  by  their  instinct  to  that  substance  which  contains 
the  vegetable  and  mineral  matter  which  is  best  suited  for  the  par- 
ticular ailment  from  which  they  are  suffering  at  that  particular 
time,  may  not  the  insect,  with  an  instinct  as  great  if  not  greater, 
have  use  for  them  for  the  same  purpose?  "  It  seems  to  me,  that 
the  lower  we  go  in  the  scale  of  life,  according  to  the  classification 
of  the  systematists,  the  more  wonderful  are  the  instinctive  faculties 
of  the  small  forms  of  life,  and  that  if  a  classification  was  made 
according  to  instinctive  faculties,  it  is  a  question  whether  the  ants 
would  not  outrank  the  animals  by  many  degrees. 
The  new  school  of  medicine,  in  departing  from  the  system  of  the 
old,  that  is,  that  in  which  Hahnemann  in  following  Paracelsus 
claimed  that  certain  symptoms  in  human  beings  required  mineral 
agencies  and  vegetable  compounds  in  potencies  equivalent  to  the 
complaint,  neglected  to  study  the  power  of  drugs,  and  results  not 
anticipated  frequently  occur,  caused  by  not  using  judgment  in  the 
quantity  of  the  dose  given.  Those  interested  in  finding  means  for 
destroying  life  that  is  destructive,  should  use  the  means  as  those 
advocated  by  Hahnemann  in  their  researches. 
Starting  upon  this  theory  which  I  contend  will  be  found  to  be 
true,  when  biologists,  physicists  and  entomologists  have  searched 
more  deeply  into  the  evolution  of  the  lower  forms  of  life,  I  divided 
the  books  into  classes  according  to  that  portion  which  was  damaged, 
and  will  describe  some  of  the  most  important  and  name  a  few  of  the 
insects  which  attack  that  particular  group. 
Paste  Eaters. — Science  has  proved  beyond  doubt  or  question 
that  there  can  be  no  destruction  of  matter,  only  a  change  of  form. 
If  there  is  no  destruction  of  matter,  then  we  have  a  demonstration 
of  the  theory  of  the  worm  or  larva  having  been  attracted  to  the  paste 
used  in  the  binding  of  the  books.    In  the  agricultural  kingdom  we 
