Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1881-12-17
ApOsheOSis Of the Worm.

DR.. Charles Darwin has written work which
is creating profound sensation in scientific
circles. He has been studying the common
earth-worm for over thirty years. and has come
to the conclusion that mankind is more indebted
to that lOathsome, wriggling little creature than
to any other race of the inferior orders of crea-
ton. The earth, according to Darwin, would
be desert were it not for the worm. Its value
is that it eats dirt and turns it into vegetable
mold. There are on an average on every acre
OF ground over $1,000 worms. These eat and
digest from eight to sixteen tons of soil per
acre in the course OF the year Whatever passes
through the Intestinal canal of the worm be-
comes vegetable mold, and without this mold
there would be no crops and no increase of
grain Or the animals which feed upon the
products OF the soil. Nor is this all.
The worm is the preserver of the me-
MORALS of the past. Its mission is to
cover naked surfaces with vegetable mold The
deserted cities and memorials of the past are first
hidden from sight by the ejecta of the worm.
Then comes the dust and the sand storm and
the accretiOns from outside of our atmosphere.
Troy is two hundred feet underground and it
took three thousand years to cover il with so
much soil, but the earth-worm is the great sex
ton who buries the monuments of the past ont
OF sight. Yet this wriggling lOathsOme crea-
lure Is one OF the most degraded and imperfect
organisms known to the naturalists. 1t has no
brain. no organs of vision cannot hear and has
no sense of smell. 1t has a certain amount of
intelligence, and knows enough to get out of the
suHiiSht. But, Notwithstanding its deficiencies
IL Is the greatest benefactOr not only to man Int
10 the other superior animals 1t NAV comfort
hsherheh TO Know that the worm they use in
angling has but little nervous sensibiiitv and
cannot be said to suffer pain when imnaiad on
the iish-hOok. 1t will not do hereafter Tn do
spise the w0rm for. as a London paner we'll
says 1T from this time forth will wear tha hIna
ribbon of science" N'
bismarck and the German Islections
Prince Bismarck is said to have expressed
dissatisfaction lately with the present method of
electng members of Parliament. The opinion
attributed to HIM is that the minority of con-
stituency have the same right to representation
as the majority, and that the fairest plan would
be to give the members of each party IN the
country an opportunity of recording their votes
and afterward to distribute the seats in accord
ance with the result. 1t cannot vet be deter
mined how this scheme would have effected the
present parliament but the National Zeitung
by reference to official statistics. has shown
that the socialists alone would have prOfited by
1t to any considerable entent In the last Parlia-
ment. 1.-THE principle of the representation of
minorities had been in force they would have
secured Twenty-Five seats in 1878 instead of
nine. The German conservatives would have
lost nine seats, the free conservatives three the
particularists four the center party six, and the
national liberals three. On the other hand. the
peoples party would have had five represen-
! tatiyes Instead of three, and the progressists
| twenty-seven instead OF twenty six-S. James
Gazette.