Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1893-01-05
WORMS AND SNAKES.


They Are Developed froa Meas HAIR -
the Tails Of Horse4-
Scientific men dispute its being a
fact that hair can develop into living
things said p E Shrmaker. the we'll
known investigator, ssbut facts are
stubborn things, and scientific author
ity cannot crush fact When was
boz, living In Winston county, Miss,
my father frequently burned the heart
ont Of big pine logs and used them for
tan vats- and tanned his own hides for
making the family shoes He used
wood ashes instead Of lime 10 take the
hair OF the hides, and after the
hair was OF he put the hides in
the creek for awhile. to soak the
aikaIi ont Of them before putting
them In tan On one occasion. In the
summer when the creek was not rum
ming. he sent me and two of INV older
brothers TO take some hides ont of a
hole Of stagnant water We found a
great many curious looking worms
swimming IN the pool. and my broth
ers called them hair-wormx Being of
an inquisitire. scrufinizing disposition.
1 vent to investigating them, and
found them IN every stage of develop
ment, from the hair as ii came OF the
hide up to = living. active, white
worm, two or three inches long. Oc-
casionally hair has been transformed
for part of its length, and made q
short WORM with a hair for tail have
seen many of these worms in the tan
yasSand every other man who has ever
tanned hides IN the same way has seen
them and knows that animal hairs can
develop into living WORMS
.-Once when / was a boy I found
moving IN little pool of water during
a spell Of rainy weather what took to
be little snake. but which found
was living. creeping thing developed
from hair which came from the switch
of a cows tail have since seen many
of this kind Hof worms curing long
spells of wet weather I once found in
a puddle Of water IN the road wad of
hair cut from a cows tail. locked and
twisted together, which had just de-
veloped life enough TO be possessed of
the power of motion. and was working
like bEndle of snakes inrerlocked and
twisted together.
THESE hair WORMS have neither eyes
nor heads yet that they are possessed
Of intelligence may be discovered
by watching them work their way
through a bed of forest leaves or pine
straw When they strike the obstruction
they feel about until they find way
for them 20 pass They are Insignificant
things but in my estimation. these
little hair worms come nearer to show
ing rs how life originates and what life
IS than ANYTHING else in nature They
furnish Us clev to the solution of the
great problem of life To my mind the
process Is simple The hairs have open
tubes or capillaries running through
them lengthwise. through which they
draw the elements of nutrition from the
blood of the COW. and perhaps have
nerve hiaments through or along which
TIE electric currents course while the
HAIR Is attached to The cow When
placed in water of a proper temperature
holding IN solution, already digested
and prepared for assimilation, the
elements of animal 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
particles o. matter Chemical action
takes place Currents are developed
Life. motion and intelligence become
manifested
However that NAV be. living crea-
lures are developed from the apparent
II inanimate hairs of COW as surely as
there is such thing as life. science to
the contrary Notwithstanding
Men in the employ of Leroy Lyman.
in the woods of Mexican county. Pa,
daily watered their horses IN the still
water of = creek near where they
worked and on quitting 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
said Milo Lyman. of Roulette, Pa, who
was superintending the work i noticed
that the water was alive with hair
snakes, as we called them of all sizes.
and thew had plainly developed not
only from the hairs of the horses tails,
but from the whislerS and hair of the
men that had dropped in the pool
Horse hair snakes were not rarity TO
any of us but none of rs had ever
thought that orr own hair would de-
velop into similar reptiles and for that
reason we used to watch the snakes
that had been part OF Us with never
ceasing interest and amusement ~
" SIM