Knoxville daily chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1870-1882, 1882-02-17
Tie Worm.

There Is no knowing what petty sub
lect the modern scientist may not take
up Tor his study or how much he will
make OF it when once he applies careful
research to it. One would think that
when Charles Darwin got down to earth
worms he must be about out of material
or else in need of bait for some fishing
expedition, and yet once applying him
self to an investigation of the habits of
worms, he makes some most remarkable
revelations.
Indeed, it is not merely worms that he
studies but the waste from their bodies,
and it is subject for no little wonder
when one sees through his eyes 1t is
estimated that there are about SO, 767
worms to an average acre of land.
These creatures, WHIT Their they eat or
swallow dirt for the purpose of making
their way through the ground, are all
the time throwing out of their bodies
the waste material just at the surface of
the earth, and this is sufficient to cover
the ground and gradually to bury the
natural surface. Worms actually cover
the earth with about 20 of an inch of
material in each year.
This Mr.. Darwin proves by an i'm
mense number of instances. For exam
pie, in December, 1912, broken chalk
was spread upon a lot near his place.
In November, 1871, a trench was dug
through the lot and the chalk pieces
were found seven inches below the sur
face. In those Twenty-Five years the
worms had buried these things to that
extent. In one instance, by measuring
their deposit over small area, it was
calculated that worms (and they are
active only half the year, put about
eighteen tons upon each acre of surface.
all the time They undermine stones
and even help to bury cities. They keep
the earth's surface in activity and slowly
and surely shift its particles and pile up
the mould over the more resistant sub
stances.
Looking at them in this light they are
at once invested with lively interest,
and their habits are worth hearing about.
Worms, he says, live months In water,
but die in day in dry air. They are
night creatures, and if shut up in the
dark all the time, where there is no sun
light at all, they automatically come to
the surface at night and go down by
day They can feel light on the forward
part of their bodies, if it is strong
light, but they have no sight. Neither
can they hear anything. They lie very
near the surface of the ground to keep
warm in summer and for the same reason
go down sixty inches or more in winter.
They manage always to keep the top of
the hole covered. They are so deaf that
some that he was demonstrating could
not even hear his piano, which suggests
certain curious picture in scientific re-
search of the eminent Mr.. Darwin play
ing to an unappreciative audience of
worms in his own parlor. The worm
can smell some things. 1t can find an
onion, or cabbage, no matter where
you bury it; tobacco it cannot perceive.
This Mr.. Darwin asserts and the intel
igence of the worm needs no higher
tribute, for man himself cannot half the
time tell the difference between cabbage
and tobacco.
Having thus exalted the creature to
this point it may be as good time as
any to drop it. But Mr.. Darwin has
filed book with the strange things that
worms do and are. Hartford Courant