ets only. The
varied energy of these little pests is thus represented:--

On folio 1 are 212 holes. On folio 61 are 4 holes.
" 11 " 57 " " 71 " 2 "
" 21 " 48 " " 81 " 2 "
" 31 " 31 " " 87 " 1 "
" 41 " 18 " " 90 " 0 "
" 51 " 6 "

These 90 leaves being stout, are about the thickness of 1 inch. The
volume has 250 leaves, and turning to the end, we find on the last leaf
81 holes, made by a breed of worms not so ravenous. Thus,

From end | From end.
On folio 1 are 81 holes. | On folio 66 is 1 hole.
" 11 " 40 " | " 69 " 0 "

It is curious to notice how the holes, rapidly at first, and then slowly
and more slowly, disappear. You trace the same hole leaf after leaf,
until suddenly the size becomes in one leaf reduced to half its normal
diameter, and a close examination will show a small abrasion of the
paper in the next leaf exactly where the hole would have come if
continued. In the book quoted it is just as if there had been a race. In
the first ten leaves the weak worms are left behind; in the second ten
there are still forty-eight eaters; these are reduced to thirty-one in
the third ten, and to only eighteen in the fourth ten. On folio 51 only
six worms hold on, and before folio 61 two of them have given in.
Before reaching folio 7, it is a neck and neck race between two sturdy
gourmands, each making a fine large hole, one of them being oval in
shape. At folio 71 they are still neck and neck, and at folio 81 the
same. At folio 87 the oval worm gives in, the round one eating three
more leaves and part way through the fourth. The leaves of the book are
then untouched until we reach the sixty-ninth from the end, upon which
is one worm hole. After this they go on multiplying to the end of the
book.

I have quoted this instance because I have it handy, but many worms
eat much longer holes than any in this volume; some I have seen
running quite through a couple of thick volumes, covers and all. In the
"Schoeffer" book the holes are probably the work of Anobium pertinax,
because the centre is spared and both ends attacked. Originally, real
wooden boards were the covers of the volume, and here, doubtless, the
attack was commenced, which was carried through each board into the
paper of the book.

I remember well