Word: silverfish
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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With students acting more like a generation of book-eating silverfish than a group of well mannered readers, Widener Library and its annexes face an increasing shortage of essential texts. Irresponsible squiggles carved into the margins of valuable books and the destruction of entire chapters by argumentative students retire vital books from service with alarming frequency. This destruction of rare and out-of-print works seriously hampers the efficiency of the University library system. Coupled with increasing book thefts by a few slippery dips, the mutilation of library property becomes a problem that must be solved if students expect...
...termite and the brown dog tick are among the most menacing-their population is growing rapidly. But even in modern, skyscraping Manhattan, man's worst insect enemies are still the ancient, hardy foes against which he has waged long and barely equal warfare-the cockroach, bedbug, ant, moth, silverfish...
Technology has been a boon to the silverfish. This swift, slithery, scaly insect, less than half an inch long, is an old inhabitant of forests, where it nests under stones and in the bark of dead trees. But it has recently migrated to the city in prodigious numbers because of its fondness for a modern product: rayon. It also likes linen, starched cotton, flour. Unlike the moth, which feeds slowly, the silverfish is a ravenous eater, can make lacework of a shirtfront in a few hours. It is also very hard to starve out ; a well-stuffed silverfish...