in their original wrappers without rebinding.

[Illustration: Fig. A]

Book-worms are practically unknown in America, but should active traces of
these be found in a book the volume should be isolated at once and placed
in a tight box with cotton well moistened with ether. Several treatments
of this kind, at intervals of two or three days, will kill any worms or
eggs. Snuff or tobacco, to be renewed at intervals, placed along the back
of the shelves, is said to discourage worms or other insects. Worm holes
in old books may sometimes be filled in, if one has time for the
operation, with a paste obtained by boiling down shreds of paper in
sizing. The writer has an edition of Homer printed at Basel in 1535, in
which a worm hole varying in size from one-eighth inch in diameter
downwards, and extending through nearly one hundred sheets, has been
filled in so carefully on each sheet, in this way, that the repair is
noticeable only on the closest inspection.

Moths should never be allowed to breed in the cases. Were it not for
increasing this danger the shelf lining mentioned above could be made of
felt instead of velvet, the former being, otherwise, a more satisfactory
material for the purpose.

While it is only in extremely large collections, where books are left
undisturbed for years, that worms, moths, dust, and other enemies of books
obtain enough of a foothold to do any serious damage, the careful
supervision of even a small collection may sometimes prove of unexpected
preventive value and, in any case, the slight extra trouble involved is in
no sense a wasted effort.

The collector will also find it convenient to catalogue the books in his
cases, preferably by means of a card-index system. Cards three by five
inches usually will be found large enough to hold a fair description. Each
card should be headed with the author's name, for convenience in indexing,
followed by the book title, an exact transcript of the title-page or
colophon, a description of the illustrations, if any, the size and the
binding, and any bibliographical notes of interest. The price paid for the
book, written in cipher, and the date purchased, should also be added.

The matter of correctly noting the size of books for such a catalogue or
index is one to which the amateur will be obliged to give a certain amount
of study, and he will find, among bookmen, wide differences of opinion as
to the proper methods to follow. For all ordinary purpos