Probably, therefore, the custodians of their old libraries could tell
a different tale, which makes it all the more amusing to find in the
excellent "Encyclopaedia of Printing,"[1] edited and printed by Ringwalt,
at Philadelphia, not only that the bookworm is a stranger there,
for personally he is unknown to most of us, but that his slightest
ravages are looked upon as both curious and rare. After quoting Dibdin,
with the addition of a few flights of imagination of his own,
Ringwalt states that this "paper-eating moth is supposed to have been
introduced into England in hogsleather binding from Holland." He then
ends with what, to anyone who has seen the ravages of the worm in hundreds
of books, must be charming in its native simplicity. "There is now,"
he states, evidently quoting it as a great curiosity, "there is now,
in a private library in Philadelphia, a book perforated by this insect."
Oh! lucky Philadelphians! who can boast of possessing the oldest library
in the States, but must ask leave of a private collector if they wish
to see the one wormhole in the whole city!


[1] "American Encyclopaedia of Printing": by Luther Ringwalt.
8vo. Philadelphia, 1871.



CHAPTER VII.

OTHER VERMIN.

BESIDES the worm I do not think there is any insect enemy of books
worth description. The domestic black-beetle, or cockroach,
is far too modern an introduction to our country to have done