sturbed him. He evidently resented his confinement, ate very little,
moved very little, and changed in appearance very little, even when
dead. This Greek worm, filled with Hebrew lore, differed in many
respects from any other I have seen. He was longer, thinner, and more
delicate looking than any of his English congeners. He was transparent,
like thin ivory, and had a dark line through his body, which I took
to be the intestinal canal. He resigned his life with extreme
procrastination, and died "deeply lamented" by his keeper, who had long
looked forward to his final development.

The difficulty of breeding these worms is probably due to their
formation. When in a state of nature they can by expansion and
contraction of the body working upon the sides of their holes, push
their horny jaws against the opposing mass of paper. But when freed from
the restraint, which indeed to them is life, they CANNOT eat although
surrounded with food, for they have no legs to keep them steady, and
their natural, leverage is wanting.

Considering the numerous old books contained in the British Museum, the
Library there is wonderfully free from the worm. Mr. Rye, lately
the Keeper of the Printed Books there, writes me "Two or three were
discovered in my time, but they were weakly creatures. One, I remember,
was conveyed into the Natural History Department, and was taken into
custody by Mr. Adam White who pronounced it to be Anobium pertinax. I
never heard of it after."

The reader, who has not had an opportunity of examining old libraries,
can have no idea of the dreadful havoc which these pests are capable of
making.

I have now before me a fine folio volume, printed on very good
unbleached paper, as thick as stout cartridge, in the year 1477, by
Peter Schoeffer, of Mentz. Unfortunately, after a period of neglect in
which it suffered severely from the "worm," it was about fifty years ago
considered worth a new cover, and so again suffered severely, this time
at the hands of the binder. Thus the original state of the boards is
unknown, but the damage done to the leaves can be accurately described.

The "worms" have attacked each end. On the first leaf are 212 distinct
holes, varying in size from a common pin hole to that which a stout
knitting-needle would make, say, <1/16> to <1/23> inch. These holes run
mostly in lines more or less at right angles with the covers, a very few
being channels along the paper affecting three or four she