Morning journal and courier., 1893-05-16

Science Has Played Hob Hfth Them,
 Especially the Horse-Hair Snake
 Relieving an Indian From a Dead
 1y Parasite.
 T'sMr in the New York sunl
 Science plays hob with the fond tradi tons of rural schoolboy days. How many ugly but useful toais have been left in un- disturbed possession of 8 garden bed, be- cause to handle them was to cover your hands with warts, and to kill them would force your COWS to let down bloody miIkl What boy would have crushed a cricket, assured as he was that its mate would come at night and avepge its death by eat ing up that rash boys olothesl What man lives to day who, as a rustic lad, has not held the stilied daddy -long-legs prisoner by one hair like shank, and informed the globulsr insect that unless 1t forthwith pointed out the way in which the lost cows hsd gone instant death awaited if; and when did daddy-lonR legs fail to raise one slender leg and indicate. according to boy tsh belief, the direction the straying Kline had gonei And the devils alarming 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, great est of all, that vlvifed hair from horses tail, wriggling and girating in the roadside mud puddle, the horse-hair snake
 But science has stepped in ant solemnly and seriously said that these are all myths. It Is shsttering of idols, but I fear that to science must be granted all 1t denies about them, except AS to snakes swallow ing their young. I have been an open mouthed and wide eyed witness of that interesting trick too often to let even pro- found scientists stand up and declare that 1t isn't so.
 hold out a little, too, for the horse hair snake, for I have in my mind a cer- tain vagrsnt horse hair that I once put in an oyster keg filled with rain water, and either that horse hair, in the course of a few weeks. took on the semblance of life and form of horse- hair snake, and kept it up all season in bottle to which I trans ferred 1t, or else 1t disappeared, and the germ of what we supposed was horse- hair snake happened to be in the water and developed there. I have always in- sisted that I made & horse-hsir snake. I have heard many vsrscious persons declare that they have done the same thing.
 But you are all wrong," says Nicholas Pike, the naturalist. "The horsebair snake, or hair worm, is the Gordius aqusl- icus, and 1t is common in most fresh water ponds and rivulets. Though no larger around than 6 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 deposit- ed In strings, like a chain, on the sides of shallow ponds or creeks, and they are greedily swallowed by various aquatic in sects. Then from the time the egg is matched the first part of the worm's nutri- ment is speut as parasite, absorbing nu- triment from the body of Its unlucky host. The large water beetles are subject to these parasites. They have been found in a cricket. They are graceful swimmers, but wh. D taken from the water they twist themselves into such sn intricate knot that 1t is almost impossible to uuloose i:. They are called Gordius from this, the Gordisn knot.
 "When the ponds dry up In long droughts all the usual inhabitants of such places totally disappear, and the clayey bottoms become so parched and dry that they can be walked over. I WAS once dig ging in dried up pond to zee If I could find any of the abundant animal life that had SO recently swarmsd there in the muddy water Among other thinga I found quite a number of the GoTdius worms stiff and dry In the clay. They were carefully removed and carried home in box. My intention was 10 examine them microssopicaliy $. my leisure. They were laid away for some days. When thought about them I lsid them in bowl of water over night. To my surprise, in the morning they were alive and swim ming about in lively fashion I took one out and laid It on plate in the broad sunlight, and left 1t for two days, when 1t was dried up again, but on putting it into water 1t was all activity In few hours
 "I have no doubt that one reason why the idea Of the horss. hair snake has been propagsted is from ignorant persons, who have had various aquatic insects in clear water, watching them for study or curios- ity. Knowing that they put In only cer tain live creatures, and some day finding these live worms, they were sstonished. The chances are that the worms were de veloped from a pet beetle that in its native pond made feast on some ovs of the Cor dius, to bs paid dearly for later when these matched"
 But there was no pet beetle nor sny oth- CT insect in my keg of rain water. The horse-hair went away and the snsks or worm appeared I don't believe the horse hair ever swallowed any Gordius ova. l can't imagine any reason why a horse hair should turn into 8 snake or worm when kept in the water, but why not horses hair as well ss & cows hair or & deer's hair. Science had better not tell any Of the few old settlers of northern Pennsyl- vsnis, nor any other locality where the pi- oneers were frequently their own tanners, that cows hair and deer's hair will not turn into worms under certain conditions, or science will get 6 black eye In the pioneer days, when a settler wanted lesth- CT for boots or shoes, 1t wss not an un- common thing for him to make vat by hollowipg out pine log, and using wood ashes instead of lime in removing the