Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 20.djvu/304

290 Lumbricus is the name of the best-known genus, of which the species have not been accurately distinguished and numbered; but only a part of them bring up earth in the form of castings, and are engaged in making tillable soil. They appear to be found wherever there is moist earth containing vegetable matter, but seem to abound most where the ground is loose and well charged with humus. Dryness is unfavorable and even fatal to them; but, although they are terrestrial animals, they have been found by M. Perrier to be capable of living for a considerable time under water. During the summer, when the ground is dry, and during the winter, when it is frozen, they penetrate to a considerable depth in the earth and cease to work. They are nocturnal in their habits, and may be often seen at night {{FIS | file        = PSM V20 D304 Alimentary canal of an earthworm.png | width       = 125px | float       = left | margin-right = 8px | caption     = {{sc|Fig. 1. Diagram of the Alimentary Canal of an Earth-Worm}} (Lumbricus}, (copied from Ray Lankester on "Quarterly Journal of Microscopical Society." vol xv, new series, pl. vii). | talign      = justify | margin-left  = 1.8em | tmleft       = 1.8em | indent       = -1.8em }} crawling over the ground, more often moving their heads and bodies around while their tails are still inserted in their burrows. Only sickly worms, such as are afflicted by the parasitic larva of a fly, as a rule travel in the day-time; and those which are seen dead on the ground after heavy rains are supposed to have been creatures afflicted in some way that have died of weakness rather than by drowning. They often lie quite still close beneath the mouths of their burrows, where their heads may be seen on looking for them, and, in this position, offer a tempting bait to birds.

The body of a large worm consists of one or two hundred almost cylindrical rings or segments, each furnished with minute bristles, and is endowed with a well-developed muscular system. The mouth is provided with a little projection or lip, capable of taking hold of things, and of sucking. Internally, a strong pharynx, corresponding, according to Perrier, with the protrusile trunk or proboscis of other annelids, and which is pushed forward when the animal eats, is situated behind the mouth. The pharynx leads into the œsophagus, on each side of the glands, which secrete a surprising amount of carbonate of lime. They are unlike anything that is known in any other animal, and their use is largely a matter of speculation. Mr. Darwin thinks they are partly excretions of the excess of lime contained in the leaves which the animal eats, and that they otherwise aid digestion by affording a neutralizing agent against the acids of its food. In most of the species the œsophagus is enlarged into a cup in front of