The Wilmington daily Republican. (Wilmington, Del.) 1890-1902, 1893-07-27
HOW SCIENCE HAS RuTHLEssLy
PLAYED HOB WITH THEM.

tne suited daddy-long-lege prisoner Dy
one hairlike shank and informed the
globular insect that unless it forthwith
pointed OUT the way in which the
lost cows had gone instant death
awaited it, and when did daddy long
legs fail to raise one slender leg and in
dictate, according to boyish belief, the
direction the straying kline had gomez
And the DEVILS darning needle, that big
eyed thing that lived and prowled for
nothing else than to sew your ears up,
and the magic eel skin tied round your
leg, or neck, or arm, to keep the cramps
away when you went in swimming, and
the snake that swallowed its young, and
greatest of all, that vivified hair from q
horses tail, wEiggling and gyrating in
the roadside mud puddle, the horsehair
snake.
But science has stepped in and solemn
ly and seriously said that these are all
myths. 1t is SCATTERING Of idols. but I
fear that to science must be granted all
it denies about them, except as to snakes
swallowing their young. l have been an
open mouthed and wide eyed witness of
that interesting trick too often to let
even profound scientists stand up and
declare that it isn't SO.
! hold out little, too, for the horse
hair snake, for have in my mind GER
tain vagrant horsehair that once put in
ian oyster keg filled with rainwater, and
either that horsehair in the course of q
few weeks took on the semblance of life
and form of q horsehair snake and kept
lit up all season in bottle to which !
transferred it, or else it disappeared, and
the germ of what we supposed was a
horsehair snake happened to DO in the
water and developed there have al
ways insisted that l made horsehair
snake. have heard many veracious
persons declare that they have done the
same thing.
But you are all wrong" says Mich
olas Pike, the naturalist. 1.-THE horsehair
snake, or hairworm, is the Gordius
aquaticus, and it is common in most
fresh water ponds and rivulets. Though
no larger around than coarse cotton
thread, they have two mouths, one on
each side of the head. They lay scores
and sometimes thousands of eggs. The
eggs are deposited in strings, like a
chain, on the sides of shallow ponds or
creeks, and they are greedily swallowed
by various aquatic insects. Then from
the time the egg is Matched the first part
of the worms nutriment is spent as
parasite, absorbing nutriment from the
body of its unlucky host. The large
yvotar hOatlau p,,1 81,
sites. They have been found in crick-
ct. They are graceful swimmers, but
when taken from the water they twist
themselves into such an intricate knot
that it is almost impossible to unloose
Iit. They are called Gordius from this,
the Gordian knot.
II have no doubt that one reason why
the idea of the horsehair snake has been
lpropagated is from ignorant persons
who have had various insects in clear
water watching them for study or curl.
osity. Knowing that they put in only
certain live creatures, and some day
finding these live worms, they were as.
tonished The chances are that the
worms We're developed from pet beetle
that in its native pond made q feast on
some oya of the Gordius, to be paid
dearly for later when these Matched"
But there was no pet beetle or any
other insect in my key of rainwater
The horsehair went away, and the snake
or worm appeared. | don't believe the
horsehair ever swallowed any Gordiu,
ova. | can't imagine any reason why q
horsehair should turn into snake OF
worm when kept in the water, but VIII,
not horses hair as well as cows hail
or deer's hair2 Science had better moi
tell any of the few old settlers of north
ern Pennsylvania or any other locality
where the pioneers were frequently theil
own tanners that cows hair and deer.
hair will not turn into worms under Ger
tain conditions or science will get
black eye. In the pioneer days, when I
settler wanted leather for boots or shoes
it was not nm uncommon thing for hin
to make vat by following out pin,
log. and using wood ashes instead of lin,
, in removing the hair, When the hid,
was taken out of the vat it would b,
placed in Il creek to soak out the alkali.
l have more than once heard the som
. of such pioneers tell of finding curiou
worms swimming about these hide
. where they were lying in quiet pools
, These worms were about two inche
long, somewhat thicker than cow
hair, and always in various stages of de
velopment from the hair as it came of
the hide, some being for part of thei
length simply hair, while the rest wa
the living worm, white and semitrans
parent. Some would be still fast to TIL.
hide, but wiggling to get loose, whcl
they would swim about with hair for
, tail. These worms were never seen ex
{ cept in the pools with the hides, eithe
COW or deer. The more think of thes
well authenticated COW hair worms TIL
more am inclined to defy science an,
/ hold out for the horsehair worm.-Ney
! York Sun.
A Theory as to Swiggins,