Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-07-31
TWO LITTLE WORMS
Create a Heap of Excitement
Among the BibliOphiles
of New York.
ONLY ONES ON RECORD.
They We're Having a Feast on a
Copy of Seneca Issued in 1875.
OWNER WILLING TO FEED THEM.
Scientists Say They Are Dying Out Be-
cause Paper Isn't Pure.
ONLY ONES ON RECORD.
OWNER WILLING TO FEED THEM.
Scientists Say They Are Dying Out Be-
cause Paper Isn't Pure.
WHAT THE RARE VISITORS LOOK LIKE

ESPECIAL TELEGRAM TO THE prsPArcH.l
NEW YORK, July 30.-A group of men
in W. E Benjamin's bookstore at 151
Broadway stood to-day around a worn,
leather-bound copy of Seneca, published in
London in 1915 and owned by one John
Carey in 1882 Their necks were craned and
their heads stretched forward. None OF
them spoke.
The book lay on a small table. 1t was
open at page 46 Tie eyes of the men were
riveted on the lower right hand corner of
the page, where a small white worm lay
buried in q hole it had eaten in the pages.
The worm was motionless. Protrudlng
over the edge of the leaves and attached to
the tail of the worm was q conical cocoon.
As the bibliophiles watched it one of their
number quoted Doraston's verses:
There is a sort of busy worm
That Will the fairest hooks deform
By gnaw ing holes throughoutthem.
As the speaker finished, another biblio-
phile said: "It's an aglossa pinguinalis
First Specimens Known to New York.
In other words it was q bookworm. And
1t and its companion, which began at the
end Of Seneca to eat forward, while the
other began at the front and was working
toward the end, are the first of their kind
known to have visited this city. The worm
eating in the front of the book is about
three-eights of an inch long and one-eighth
of an inch in diameter. Its head ends
bluntly, lille Its tail tapers to a sharp point.
Its color is that of water mixed with oat-
meal
1t Law motionless until, through the care
lessnesS of one of the oniookers, the cocoon
was torn from the paper. The worm then
raised itself suddenly, but almost instantly
resumed its former position, buried in the
pages The cocoon when examined under
microscope appeared to have six legs or leg
cases and white media line barely percep-
tihle on its under side. At the end from
which the worm had emerged were two fine
horns, thinner than silk thread. There were
five rings around the tail The structure of
the shell is so thin that anyone can easily
see through it,
Willing to supply the Food.
The copy of Seneca on which the two
worms are feeding is an old copy and valu-
able, but its owners profess willingness TO
supply, if possible, MANY more of them, if
the two worms will but teed on them, thrive
and live
William Blades, an English writer in
book entitled Enemies of Books, - writ
ten about 10 years ago, says OF the destructive
powers of the book worm:
A most destructive enemy of books has
been the bookworn. 1 say has been" be-
cause. fortunately, his ravages in all civil
lied countries have been greatly restricted
during tine last 50 years This is due partly
10 the increased reverence for antiquity
which has been universally acopted-more
still to the feeling of cupidity, which has
caused all owners to take care of volumes
which year by year have become more valu-
able and to some considerable extent to
the falling of in the production OF edible
books.
Through the Dark Ages the monks, who
were the chief makers as well as custodians
OF books, had no fear of the book worm, tor
singular though it NAV be, he loves not
parchment, and at that time there was no
paper.
He Came With the Printing Press.
All the writers on this subject agree that
before the invention of typography rare and
precious manuscripts were well preserved.
But with the invention of the printing press
paper books were multiplied, libraries in
creased, readers were many, and familiarity
bred contempt Books were slowed away
in musty corners and out-of-the-way places
and left neglected The result was the book
worms became the tenants of the library.
So far as the reporter has been able to
is in ''Nicrographia by R. Hooke," pub
lished in London in 1865 Harnett in his
work on book binding gives AgloSsa p in
g1indlS as the real name and Mrs. Gatty in
her Parallels" chrstens it Hypotae7aem,es
E'7fdit1& The Rev. f. T. Haver-
gale, who many years ago had much
trouble with book worms in the cathedral
library of Hereford, England, wrote that
the worms were kind of death watch,
--vh - hor cl-S o~1-
brown" another sort 'having white bodies,
with brown spots on their heads" Mr.
Holme, in Notes and Queries for 1870 states
that the Anobi'u7a Pdniceazn has done consid-
cradle injury to the Arabic manuscripts
brought from Cairo by Burckhards, and
now in the University Library at CAM
bridge.
He Takes His Paper Straight.
One result of the extensive adulteration
Of modern paper is that the worm will not
touch it. His instinct forbids him to eat
the china clay, the bleacher, the plaster of
paris, the sulphate of borytes and scores of
other adulterants now used TO mix with the
fiber, aud so far the wise pages of the
old literature are heavily handicapped
in race against time with the modern rub
bish. Ringwalt's "Encvclopaedia of Print
ing" published in Philadelphia in 1871,
says that the boOkworm is stranger there
and is supposed to have been introduced
inIo England IN hog leather binding from
Holland. 1t says that there is now in
private library in Philadelphia book per-
torated by this insect.
Mr.. Ringwalt does not say whether tine
worm was found or not That bookworms
are becoming scarcer and rarer year by year
is evident when one recalls that Bernard
Quaitch, the famous Blbliophite of London,
when he found a bookworm in one of his
books five years ago gave dinner to all his
cnstnmers Ii remains for Mr. BENJAMIN