The star. (Reynoldsville, Pa.) 1892-1946, 1893-07-26
NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.
HOW SCIENCE HAS RUTHLESSLY
PLAYED HOB WITH TREM.

Even the Horsehair Snake Is Declared by
che Naturalist to lie n Humbug-stili
Clinging to That Beiies and Ppssenting
Pretty Good Argument.
Science plays hob with the fond tradi-
tions of rural schoolboy days. How
many ugly but useful toads have been
left in undisturbed possession of q gar
den bed because to handle them was
but To cover your hands with warts and
to kills them would force your cows to
let down bloody milk2 What boy would
have crushed a cricket, assured as he
was that its mate would come at night
and avenge its death by eating up that
rash boys clothes? What man lives TO-
day who, as a rustic lad. has not held
the stilted daddy-long-legs prisoner ar
one hairlike shank and informed the
globular insect that unless it forthwith
pointed out the way in which the
Lost cows had gone instant dett'I
awaited it, and when did daddy-long-
legs fail to raise one slender leg and in
dicate, according to boyish belief, the
direction the straying kline had gone?
And the DEVILS darning needle. that BIZ;
eyed thing that lived and prowled for
nothing else than to sew your ears MP,
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 vivifed hair from
horses tail, wriggling and gyrating in
the roadside mud puddle, the horsehair
snake.
But science has stepped in and solemn
ly and seriously said that these are air
myths. II is a shattering of idols. but
fear that to science must be granted all
it denies about them, except as to snakes
swallowing their young. 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 q little, too, for the horse
hair snake, for have in my mind n GER
tain vagrant horsehair that once put in
an oyster keg filled with rainwater. and
either that horsehair in the course of n
few weeks took on the semblance of life
and form of horsehair snake and kept
it 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 be 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. "The horsohair
snake, or hairworm, is the Gorlius
aquaticus, and it is common in most
fresh water ponds and rivulets. Though
no larger around than a 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
Wdltr DteIlts drt buDJeCt 10 tneSe para
sites. They have been found in crick-
et 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
1t. 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
propagated 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 were developed from pet beetle
that in its native pond made feast on
some ova of the Gordius, to be paid
dearly for later when these Matched"
But there was no pet beetle or any
other insect in my keg of rainwater.
The horsehair went away, and the snake
or worm appeared. don't believe the
horsehair ever swallowed any Gordius
ova. can't imagine any reason why q