Books on the shelves should set in firmly among their neighbors, as a certain amount of pressure on the sides is essential to keep the boards from warping. Care must be taken, however, not to wedge them in too tightly; such a cure is worse in its effects than the disease. The usual method of removing a book from the shelf is to hook a finger into the top of the back, or head cap, and pull. Paper or cloth backs are often torn at the top in this way. It is far preferable to reach in with the hand and push the book out from the fore edge or, at least, to tilt it outward by a slight pressure of several fingers on the top beyond the head-band. If the shelves are lined with velvet, as elsewhere suggested, it will be necessary to lift the heavier books into place when returning them to the shelves; if they are shoved in on the lower edges of the boards the velvet will follow them in.

Books in delicate bindings or fragile covers may often, with advantage, be fitted with slip covers of silk, cloth, Japan vellum, or even soft, heavy paper. These covers are simple and easy to make, but they can be used only when the condition of the book will permit both boards to bend backward without injury, while slipping the cover on or off. (Fig. A.)

Covers of this kind, made of leather and provided with a label on the back, are especially adaptable to paper-covered books which, for any reason, one may wish to preserve in their original wrappers without rebinding.

Book-worms are practically unknown in America, but should active traces of these be found in a book the volume should be isolated at once and placed in a tight box with cotton well moistened with ether. Several treatments of this kind, at intervals of two or three days, will kill any worms or eggs. Snuff or tobacco, to be renewed at intervals, placed along the back of the shelves, is said to discourage worms or other insects.

Worm holes in old books may sometimes be filled in, if one has time for the operation, with a paste obtained by boiling down shreds of paper in sizing. The writer has an edition of Homer printed at Basel in 1535, in which a worm hole varying in size from one eighth inch in diameter downwards, and extending through nearly one hundred sheets, has been filled in so carefully on each sheet, in this way, that the repair is noticeable only on the closest inspection.

Moths should never be allowed to breed in the cases. Were it not for increasing this danger the shelf lining mentioned above could be made of felt instead of velvet, the former being, otherwise, a more satisfactory material for the purpose.

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