[page] 200

MR. DARWIN'S RECENT WORK ON WORMS describes how these so-called useless creatures have benefited the pursuit of archæology. He shows that large stones, and even paved walks, when left undisturbed, have in the course of a few years been completely buried beneath the casts of worms. To this cause we owe the preservation of the part of the floor of Beaulieu Abbey, and the recumbent huge stones of Stonehenge have sunk partly underground owing to similar action. Not only so, but Mr. Darwin shows that there is the greatest probability that whole towns like the old Roman towns of Silchester and Uriconium owe their preservation for the inspection of modern archæologists to a large extent to the ceaseless work of generations of these lowly creatures.