A2409    Review:     Anon. 1881. [Humorous comment on Earthworms]. Hertford Mercury and Reformer (15 October): 2.   Text

The Complete Work of Charles Darwin Online [page] 2 Dr. Darwin, who is now more than seventy years old and has been before the public as an industrious philosophical writer for about forty of them, has recently issued a book entitled The Formation of Vegetable Mould through the Action of Worms, with Observations on their Habits. It does not sound like a savoury subject, but the careful observer has elevated the loathsome reptile, from our ordinary opinion of it as a cumberer of the ground, to

A1333    Review:     Anon. 1881. [Review of Earthworms] Analyses of books. Journal of Science, 3, 3d ser., (December): 671-73.   Text   PDF

The Complete Work of Charles Darwin Online [page] 671 The Formation of Vegetable Mould through the Action of Earth-Worms, with Observations on their Habits. By CHARLES DARWIN, LL.D., F.R.S. London: John Murray. MANY persons will probably consider the work before us un-Darwinian. It contains, indeed, no reference to the origin or the transformation of organic species, or to the theory with which the name of our great English naturalist will be for ever connected. But it is characteristically

F1357    Book:     Darwin, C. R. 1881. The formation of vegetable mould, through the action of worms, with observations on their habits. London: John Murray.   Text   Image   PDF

about twice as many worms in gardens as in corn-fields.* With respect to prairies lev es, I do not know how it may be in France, but nowhere in England have I seen the ground so thickly covered with castings as on commons, at a height of several hundred feet above the sea. In woods again, if the loose leaves in autumn are removed, the whole surface will be found strewed with castings. Dr. King, the superintendent of the Botanic Garden in Calcutta, to whose kindness I am indebted for many

F1357    Book:     Darwin, C. R. 1881. The formation of vegetable mould, through the action of worms, with observations on their habits. London: John Murray.   Text   Image   PDF

different occasions might be explained, either by the degree of extension of their skin and its consequent transparency, or by some particular incidence of the light; but I could discover no such relation. One thing was manifest, namely that when worms were employed in dragging leaves into their burrows or in eating them, and even during the short intervals whilst they rested from their work, they either did not perceive the light or were regardless of it; and this occurred even when the light

F1357    Book:     Darwin, C. R. 1881. The formation of vegetable mould, through the action of worms, with observations on their habits. London: John Murray.   Text   Image   PDF

; and we know from Fr d ricq that a secretion of this * Clapar de doubts whether saliva is secreted by worms: see 'Zeitschrift f r wissenschaft. Zoologie,' B. xix. 1869, p. 601. [page] 4

F1357    Book:     Darwin, C. R. 1881. The formation of vegetable mould, through the action of worms, with observations on their habits. London: John Murray.   Text   Image   PDF

the 70, 79 per cent. had been drawn in by or near the tip; 4 per cent. by or near the base; and 17 per cent. transversely or by the middle. These proportions agree very closely, as far as the tip is concerned, with those before given. But the percentage drawn in by the base is smaller, which may be attributed to the breadth of the basal part of the blade. We here, also, see that the presence of a foot-stalk, which it might have been expected would have tempted the worms as a convenient handle, has

F1357    Book:     Darwin, C. R. 1881. The formation of vegetable mould, through the action of worms, with observations on their habits. London: John Murray.   Text   Image   PDF

this narrowness was chiefly due to the curling in of the margins. Out of 36 fallen leaves on another bed, in which different varieties of the Rhododendron grew, only 17 were narrower towards the base than towards the apex. My son William, who first called my attention to this case, picked up 237 fallen leaves in his garden (where the Rhododendron grows in the natural soil) and of these 65 per cent. could have been drawn by worms into their burrows more easily by the base or foot-stalk than by the

F1357    Book:     Darwin, C. R. 1881. The formation of vegetable mould, through the action of worms, with observations on their habits. London: John Murray.   Text   Image   PDF

of Clematis montana, I expected that the apex would have been preferred. But the result was that out of 121 leaves with the tips cemented, which were drawn into burrows, 108 were drawn in by their bases, and only 13 by their tips. Thinking that the worms might possibly perceive and dislike the smell or taste of the shell-lac, though this was very improbable, especially after the leaves had been left out during several nights, the tips of the needles of many leaves were tied together with fine

F1357    Book:     Darwin, C. R. 1881. The formation of vegetable mould, through the action of worms, with observations on their habits. London: John Murray.   Text   Image   PDF

feel sure, especially in the latter case, that none had been drawn in as food. At this season, therefore, worms drag these petioles into their burrows indifferently by either end, a slight preference being given to the base. This latter fact may be accounted for by the difficulty of plugging up a burrow with objects so extremely thin as are the upper ends. In support of this view, it may be stated that out of the 16 petioles which had been drawn in by their upper ends, the more attenuated

F1357    Book:     Darwin, C. R. 1881. The formation of vegetable mould, through the action of worms, with observations on their habits. London: John Murray.   Text   Image   PDF

appearing due to intelligence may be performed through inherited habit without any intelligence, although aboriginally thus acquired. Or the habit may have been acquired through the preservation and inheritance of beneficial variations of some other habit; and in this case the new habit will have been acquired independently of intelligence throughout the whole course of its development. There is no priori improbability in worms having acquired special instincts through either of these two

F1357    Book:     Darwin, C. R. 1881. The formation of vegetable mould, through the action of worms, with observations on their habits. London: John Murray.   Text   Image   PDF

depth, and was of so poor a nature that weeds could not grow on it. It is therefore highly improbable that it should have been swallowed by the worms as food. Again in a field near my house the castings frequently consist of almost pure chalk, which lies at only a little depth beneath the surface; and here again it is very improbable that the chalk should have been swallowed for the sake of the very little organic matter which could have percolated into it from the poor overlying pasture

F1357    Book:     Darwin, C. R. 1881. The formation of vegetable mould, through the action of worms, with observations on their habits. London: John Murray.   Text   Image   PDF

the whole ground would be first thickly riddled with holes to a depth of about ten inches, and in fifty years a hollow unsupported space, ten inches in depth, would be left. The holes left by the decay of successively formed roots of trees and plants must likewise collapse in the course of time. The burrows of worms run down perpendicularly or a little obliquely, and where the soil is at all argillaceous, there is no difficulty in believing that the walls would slowly flow or slide inwards

F1357    Book:     Darwin, C. R. 1881. The formation of vegetable mould, through the action of worms, with observations on their habits. London: John Murray.   Text   Image   PDF

, these must have been buried by the worms whilst the land was in pasture before it was ploughed, for otherwise they would have been indiscriminately scattered by the plough throughout the whole thickness of the soil. Four-and-a-half years afterwards I had three holes dug in this field, in which potatoes had been lately planted, and the layer of marl-fragments was now found 13 inches beneath the bottoms of the furrows, and therefore probably 15 inches 1809, that is twenty-eight years before the first

F1357    Book:     Darwin, C. R. 1881. The formation of vegetable mould, through the action of worms, with observations on their habits. London: John Murray.   Text   Image   PDF

slowly covered up by the castings of worms. Farmers in England are well aware that objects of all kinds, left on the surface of pasture-land, after a time disappear, or, as they say, work themselves downwards. How powdered lime, cinders, and heavy stones, can work down, and at the same rate, through the matted roots of a grass-covered surface, is a question which has probably never occurred to them. * 'Trans. of the New Zealand Institute,' vol. xii., 1880, p. 152. Mr. Lindsay Carnagie, in a letter

F1357    Book:     Darwin, C. R. 1881. The formation of vegetable mould, through the action of worms, with observations on their habits. London: John Murray.   Text   Image   PDF

this stone, and on digging a hole where it had lain, several burrows and worms were found. At Stonehenge, some of the outer Druidical stones are now prostrate, having fallen at a remote but unknown period; and these have become buried to a moderate depth in the ground. They are surrounded by sloping borders of turf, on which recent castings were seen. Close to one of these fallen stones, which was 17 ft. long, 6 ft. broad, and 28 inches thick, a hole was dug; and here the vegetable mould was at

F1357    Book:     Darwin, C. R. 1881. The formation of vegetable mould, through the action of worms, with observations on their habits. London: John Murray.   Text   Image   PDF

generally larger than those on land producing a rich vegetation. It would appear that worms have to swallow a greater amount of earth on poor than on rich land, in order to obtain sufficient nutriment. With respect to the tower-like castings [page] 16

F1357    Book:     Darwin, C. R. 1881. The formation of vegetable mould, through the action of worms, with observations on their habits. London: John Murray.   Text   Image   PDF

, and it then abounded with fresh castings. Worms do not work in dry weather during [page] 16

F1357    Book:     Darwin, C. R. 1881. The formation of vegetable mould, through the action of worms, with observations on their habits. London: John Murray.   Text   Image   PDF

Leith Hill Place, during 369 days, calculated to yield annually per acre 7 56 tons. (4.) Castings collected from a square yard on Leith Hill Common during 367 days, calculated to yield annually per acre 16 1 tons. The thickness of the layer of mould, which castings ejected during a year would form if uniformly spread out. As we know from the two last cases in the above summary, the weight of the dried castings ejected by worms during a year on a square yard of surface, I wished to learn how

F1357    Book:     Darwin, C. R. 1881. The formation of vegetable mould, through the action of worms, with observations on their habits. London: John Murray.   Text   Image   PDF

Roman emperors, dating from 133 to 361, and perhaps to 375 A.D., were likewise found. Also a half-penny of George I., 1715. The presence of this latter coin seems an anomaly; but no doubt it was dropped on the ground during the last century, and since then there has been ample time for its burial under a considerable depth of the castings of worms. From the different dates of the Roman coins we may infer that the building was long inhabited. It was probably ruined and deserted 1400 or 1500

F1357    Book:     Darwin, C. R. 1881. The formation of vegetable mould, through the action of worms, with observations on their habits. London: John Murray.   Text   Image   PDF

. Even those parts of the concrete floor which the worms could not penetrate would almost certainly have been undermined, and would have sunk, like the great [page] 19

F1357    Book:     Darwin, C. R. 1881. The formation of vegetable mould, through the action of worms, with observations on their habits. London: John Murray.   Text   Image   PDF

not probable that they can have been undermined by worms, for their foundations would no doubt have been laid at a considerable depth. If they have not subsided, the stones of which the columns were constructed must have been removed from beneath the former level of the floor. Chedworth, Gloucestershire. The remains of a large Roman villa were discovered here in 1866, on ground which had been covered with wood from time immemorial. No suspicion seems ever to have been entertained that ancient

F1357    Book:     Darwin, C. R. 1881. The formation of vegetable mould, through the action of worms, with observations on their habits. London: John Murray.   Text   Image   PDF

appears to have been destroyed by fire, and most of the stones used in the buildings have since been carried away. These circumstances are unfavourable for ascertaining the part which worms have played in the burial of the ruins; but as careful sections of the rubbish overlying an ancient town have seldom or never before been made in England, I will give copies of the most characteristic portions of some of those made by Mr. Joyce. They are of too great length to be here introduced entire. An

F1357    Book:     Darwin, C. R. 1881. The formation of vegetable mould, through the action of worms, with observations on their habits. London: John Murray.   Text   Image   PDF

us. Worm-castings were observed on the floors of several of the rooms, in one of which the tesselation was unusually perfect. The tesser here consisted of little cubes of hard sandstone of about 1 inch, several of which were loose or projected slightly above the general level. One or occasionally two open worm-burrows were found beneath all the loose tesser . Worms have also penetrated the old walls of these ruins. A wall, which had just been exposed to view during the excavations then in

F1357    Book:     Darwin, C. R. 1881. The formation of vegetable mould, through the action of worms, with observations on their habits. London: John Murray.   Text   Image   PDF

rendered intelligible. For worms will continually have brought up fine earth from below, which will have been stirred [page] 22

F1357    Book:     Darwin, C. R. 1881. The formation of vegetable mould, through the action of worms, with observations on their habits. London: John Murray.   Text   Image   PDF

walls were perhaps intentionally pulled down, and that hollow places were filled up. This may have been the case; but if after the desertion of the city the land was left for many centuries uncultivated, worms would have brought up enough fine earth to have covered the ruins completely; that is if they had subsided from having been undermined. The foundations of some of the walls, for instance those of the portion still standing about 20 feet above the ground, and those of the market-place, lie at