and although the Doctor's bibliography is very incorrect, and his
spun-out inanities and wearisome affectations often annoy one,
yet his books are so beautifully illustrated, and he is so full
of personal anecdote and chit chat, that it grieves the heart to see
"foxey" stains common in his most superb works.

In a perfectly dry and warm library these spots would probably
remain undeveloped, but many endowed as well as private libraries are not
in daily use, and are often injured from a false idea that a hard frost
and prolonged cold do no injury to a library so long as the weather is dry.
The fact is that books should never be allowed to get really cold,
for when a thaw comes and the weather sets in warm, the air, laden with
damp, penetrates the inmost recesses, and working its way between the
volumes and even between the leaves, deposits upon their cold surface its
moisture. The best preventative of this is a warm atmosphere during the
frost, sudden heating when the frost has gone being useless.

Our worst enemies are sometimes our real friends, and perhaps the best
way of keeping libraries entirely free from damp is to circulate our
enemy in the shape of hot water through pipes laid under the floor.
The facilities now offered for heating such pipes from the outside
are so great, the expense comparatively so small, and the direct gain
in the expulsion of damp so decided, that where it can be accomplished
without much trouble it is well worth the doing.

At the same time no system of heating should be allowed to supersede
the open grate, which supplies a ventilation to the room as useful
to the health of the books as to the health of the occupier. A coal fire
is objectionable on many grounds. It is dangerous, dirty and dusty.
On the other hand an asbestos fire, where the lumps are judiciously laid,