The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1892-12-02
WORMS AND SNAKES
Developed From Cows Tails, Mems
Hair and the Tails OF Horses.
E1-o-. tha Mar Vo~L

Hair and the Tails OF Horses.
From the NeiO York Sun.
Scientific men dispute its being fact
that hair can develop into living things"
said P. f. Shumaker, the well-known inves-
tigstor, "but facts are stubborn things, and
scientific authority cannot crush fact.
When / was a boy, living in Winston
county, Mississippi, my father frequently
burned the heart out OF big pine logs and
used them for tan watts, and tanned his own
hides for making the family shoes He
used wood ashes instead Of lime to take the
hair off of the hides, and after the hair was
off he put the hides In the creek for q while
to soak the alkali out of them before putting
them in tan. On one occasion in the sum
mer, when the creek was not running, he
sent me and two Of my older brothers to
take some hides out of q hole Of stagnant
water. We found a great many curious
looking worms swimming in the pool, and
my brothers called them hair worms. Being
of an inquisitive, scrutinizing disposition, l
went to investigating them, and found
them in every stage of development, from
the hair as it came Off the hide, up to a
living, active, white worm. two or three
inches long. Occasionally hair has only
been transformed for part Of its length,
and made a short worm with hair for
tail. l have seen many OF these worms in
the tan watts. and every other man who has
tanned hides in the same way has seen them
aad knows that animal hairs can develop
into living worms
"Once when l was boy found moving
in little pool of water during a spell Of
rainy weather what took TO be little
snake, but which l found was a living
creeping thing developed from hair which
came from the switch Of a cows tail
have since seen many OF this kind Of worms
during long spells Of wet weather. once
found In puddle Of water in the road
wad of hair cut from a COWS tail, looked
and twisted together. which had Just de-
veloped life enough to be possessed of the
power OF motion, and was working like a
bundle Of snakes interlocked and twisted to-
gether.
These hair worms have neither eyes nor
heads, yet that they are possessed of intelli-
gence may be discovered by Watching them
work their way through bed Of forest
leaves or fine straw. When they strike an
obstruction they feel about until they find a
way for them TO pass. They are insigni6-
can't things, but IN my estimation these
little hair worms come nearer to showing US
how life originates and what life ia than
anything else In nature. They furnish us
clew TO the solution of the great problem Of
life. To my mind the process is simple.
The hairs have open tubes or capiliares
running through them lengthwise, through
which they draw the elements Of
nutrition from the blood of the
COW, and perhaps have nerve flements
through or along which the electric currents
course while the hair Is attached to the COW.
When placed in water OF a proper tempera-
ture holding In solution, already digested
and prepared for assimilation, the elements
of nutrition which have been drawn from
either animal or vegetable matter, the fluid
is drawn into the hair by capillary attrac-
ton and the chemical affinity OF the partl-
Giles of matter. Chemical action takes place
Currents are developed. Life, motion and
Intelligence become manifested
"However that may be, living creatures
are developed from the apparently mani
mate hairs Of a cow as surely as there is
such a thing as life, science TO the contrary
Notwithstanding"
Men in the employ OF Leroy Lyman, in
the woods of Mexican county, Penn
sylvania, daily watered their horses
in the still water of @ creek near
where they worked, and on quit
ting work washed their hands and faces in
the same pool Hairs from their heads and
boards naturally fell into the water. The
horses, also, whisked hairs from their tails
while standing in the water. "By and by
says Milo Lyman Of Roulette, Pa. who was
experimenting the work, 81 noticed that
the water was alive with hair snakes, as we
called them, of all sizes, and they had plainly
developed not only from the hairs of the
horses tails but from the whiskers and hair
of the men that had dropped In the pool.
Horsehair snakes were not rarity to any
of us, but none of US had ever thought that
our own hair would develop into similar
reptiles, and for that reason we used to
part Of US with never-ceasing interest and
amugemeutn