[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 the rank of a benefactor of our race, and henceforward, when, as at this season of the year, we notice the abundant castings of the creature, we are to remember that such excrement is fertilising the surface of the whole earth. The learned doctor by his lengthen researches proves that the worm has no eyes or ears, a digestive system of some little complexity, doubtful as to a sense of smell, but quite clear as to taste by the preference shown for certain kinds of food. Of all strange statistics ever submitted for consideration is the calculation that to every acre of land there are probably from 35,000 to 50,000 worms. We must accept the statement in the absence of any way of checking its correctness. But with such facts and honest enquiry the Darwinian doctrine know as Development is not strengthened; on the contrary, we are enabled still better to appreciate the Psalmist's exclamation, "O Lord, how manifold are Thy works! in wisdom hast thou made them all; the earth is full of thy riches."