Am.  Jour.  Pharm.  ) 
December,  1910.  J 
Insects  Destructive  to  Books, 
561 
putrid  matter,  or  from  a  person  suffering  from  a  contagious  disease, 
by  depositing  disease  germs  on  books  provide  the  means,  if  given  the 
proper  conditions,  of  spreading  these  diseases  to  a  locality  where  they 
were  unknown  before,  not  to  mention  the  possibilities  of  fleas, 
germs,  and  bacteria.  From  my  knowledge  of  the  ability  of  bacteria 
to  attach  themselves  to  paper,  I  am  positive  that  future  research 
will  show  that  books  and  papers  have  been  the  means  of  spreading 
many  cases  of  disease.  The  question  of  doing  away  with  bank 
notes  has  been  agitated  for  years,  on  account  of  the  disease  germs 
and  bacteria  carried  on  them,  absorbed  from  the  unclean  hands 
which  handle  them.  A  letter  received  by  me  from  the  United 
States  Bureau  of  Animal  Industry  states  that,  "  Several  years  ago, 
however,  at  the  request  of  a  Representative  in  Congress,  an  examina- 
tion was  made  by  this  bureau  of  a  one-dollar  Treasury  note  with 
the  view  of  determining  the  number  of  organisms  thereon.  The 
note  used  for  the  investigation  was  obtained  on  February  3,  1904, 
from  the  U.  S.  Treasury,  having  been  withdrawn  on  that  date  from 
circulation.  It  belonged  to  Series  1890,  and  hence  had  been  in 
circulation  thirteen  years.  While  the  note  looked  very  old  and 
quite  soiled,  one  often  receives  notes  of  even  worse  appearance  in 
ordinary  business  transactions.  • 
"  The  note  in  question  was  subjected  to  the  ordinary  laboratory 
manipulations  for  determining  the  number  of  micro-organisms  upon 
it  which  were  capable  of  vegetation  and  development,  and  as  a  result 
of  this  examination  it  was  found  that  there  were  13,518,000  living 
micro-organisms  present  on  this  note.  These  consisted  principally 
of  the  organisms  popularly  known  as  bacteria  and  fungi."  Unclean- 
liness  is  more  to  blame  than  the  paste  in  the  books  for  insects  found 
destroying  them. 
The  fleas,  Pulex  serraticeps,  and  other  species,  and  the  Acarina, 
or  pseudoscorpions,  are  also  capable  of  carrying  disease  germs. 
Remedies. — As  far  as  the  destruction  of  these  insects  by  poison 
is  concerned,  they  are  practically  worthless,  because,  whenever  the 
poison  is  used  to  destroy  one  insect  it  will  attract  other  insects  that 
have  need  for  that  poison.  Uncleanliness  of  the  human  family  also 
helps  to  supply  the  needs  of  the  bookworm.  Men  and  women 
do  not  give  the  proper  consideration  to  their  hands,  going  from  the 
dining-room  into  the  library,  either  public  or  private.  Nature,  by 
its  process  under  the  great  infinite  power,  has  supplied  the  skin 
of  the  human  body  with  scales  and  pores,  and  these,  acting  upon 
