The Lambertville record. [volume] (Lambertville, N.J.) 1872-1968, 1893-07-19
INTERPRETATIONS
HOW SCIENCE HAS RUTHLEssLY
j PLAYED HOB WITH THEM.

PLAYED HOB WITH THEM.
Even the Horsehair Snake Is Declared by
the Naturalist to BE Humbug-st Still
CIlnging 60 That Belief and Presenting
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 gar
den bed because to handle them was
but to cover your hands with warts and
to kill them would force your cows to
let down bloody milk? What boy would
have crushed crickes, 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 rustic Lad, has not held
the stilted daddy-long-legs prisoner by
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 ana 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 vivifed hair from a
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 all
myths. 1t is 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 q GER
tain vagrant horsehair that once put in
an oyster key filed with rainwater, and
either that horsehair in the course of a
few weeks took on the semblance of life
and form Of horsehair snake and kept
1t up all season in a bottle to which I
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 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 {
chain, on the sides Of shallow ponds o.
creeks, and they are greedily swallowed
by various aquatic insects. Then from
the time the egg is Matched the first par
Of the worms nutriment is spent as
parasite, absorbing nutriment from tn.
body of its unlucky host. The larg,
water beetles are subject to these para
sites. They have been found in criclx
ct. They are graceful swimmers, bui
when taken from the water thew twisi
fbauselvaa into sucb an ;ntricate Lno,
that n il almost impossible ~ unloose
n They are called 4ord;us from tbis
tba Gord;an knot
~ have no doubt that one reason WIN
tba idaa of tba borsebair anala hos hea,,
nronapated Il from IGNORANT persons
r,ba have had variona ;nsacts Il claa,
water Watching them for stndv or curi
ositv knowing that thew mt in onlx
oorta;, live croot,,ras ord .o,na day
ena,,,a t,,aso i've sro,,,,s tloS ,,,a,o as
1890 Tha oha,,aas 40 +,at ~.
,vo,.,,,s ,vara davalorad FROM \ ,,at baetl,
that IN re ,ativa ,ooa ,ooaa q fao.t =,
ao,na ova ~ Inc C,ordins ~ he naif
daarlx for tota,. ,,,,,o,, thasa hatcbad
Put there was No not beetle or an,
o+har ;nsact l., NV Leg 90 ro;,yrota,.
The borseha,r went ovay and tha snolr.
-, worm orr a,naarad don,t he1;ava Az
bo~sahair arer suo,io,ved anv Isora;,,s s
ova can,t ;naoina anv raas son WIN J
horsaha;r shorId trrn into 3 snata .,
worm when kent IN tha water but WIN
not a borse,s hair % wall aa 4 cows hal,
~ dasr,s hair, science had hotter no,
ta,I anv ~ tha fe,v ala set+loys ,f ,,ortl,.
ar, psnnsvlvon;a or anv other ,ocal;ty
svbara tba n;oraers yyara freauantlv tba;,
own tanners that cows hair and deey,.