Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 20.djvu/305

Rh the gizzard. The latter organ is lined with a smooth, thick, chitinous membrane, and is surrounded by weak longitudinal but powerful transverse muscles. Grains of sand and small stones, from one twentieth to a little more than one tenth of an inch in diameter, may be found in the gizzard and intestines, and are supposed to serve, like millstones, to triturate the food. The gizzard opens into the intestine, which presents a peculiar remarkable longitudinal involution of the walls, by which an extensive absorbent surface is gained. The circulatory system is well developed. Breathing is done by the skin, without special respiratory organs. The nervous system is fairly developed, with two almost confluent cerebral ganglia situated near the anterior end.

Worms have no eyes, and are measurably indifferent to light; yet they can distinguish night from day, and are quickly affected by a strong light, and after some time by a moderate light shining continuously upon them. They do not much mind a moderate radiant heat, but are sensitive to cold. They have no sense of hearing, but are extremely sensitive to vibrations in any solid object. Worms in pots, which had paid no attention to the sound of a piano, when placed on the piano instantly drew into their holes when the notes were struck. Their whole body is sensitive to contact, as of a puff of air. Their sense of smell is feeble, but responds fairly well to the odor of the cabbage and onion or whatever they like, as was shown to Mr. Darwin by some very interesting experiments. They are omnivorous, and swallow enormous quantities of earth, out of which they extract any digestible matter which it may contain, consume decayed and fresh leaves and vegetable matter, and raw, roasted, and decayed meat, but like raw fat best.

Mr. Darwin discovered in worms evidences of a degree of intelligence. They line their burrows with leaves as a protection, it is supposed, against the cold of the clammy ground, and plug the entrances to them with leaves and leaf-stalks. It requires some manipulation to get these leaves in right, but the worms know how to perform it, and can discriminate between the easiest way to draw the leaf in and other ways. Commonly, seventy or eighty per cent of the leaves are drawn in by the tips, that being the direction in which they go in most easily and fold most nicely. Some leaves, however, may be drawn in nearly as easily by the sides or the bases as by the tips, and a larger proportion of these are drawn in in those ways. The worm likes to gnaw the base of the petiole of the ash-leaf, and this leaf is drawn in by the base. Pine-leaves, which grow in pairs attached to a single base, must be drawn in by the base or not at all, and the worm rarely makes a mistake in the matter. Mr. Darwin suggests here, however, that we must not suppose the worm to know too much, and that some other quality than mechanical convenience may guide it to the selection of the base of the pine-leaf. Sometimes, when the worm begins to plug