THE FORMATION OF
VEGETABLE MOULD
THROUGH THE ACTION OF WORMS
WITH OBSERVATIONS ON THEIRHABITS.

Introduction

Page 1–6

CHAPTER I.
HABITS OF WORMS.

Nature of the sites inhabited—Can live long underwater—Nocturnal—Wander about at night—Often lieclose to the mouths of their burrows, and are thus destroyed inlarge numbers by birds—Structure—Do not possess eyes,but can distinguish between light and darkness—Retreatrapidly when brightly illuminated, not by a reflexaction—Power of attention—Sensitive to heat andcold—Completely deaf—Sensitive to vibrations and totouch—Feeble power of smell—Taste—Mentalqualities—Nature offood—Omnivorous—Digestion—Leaves before beingswallowed, moistened with a fluid of the nature of the pancreaticsecretion—Extra-stomachal digestion—Calciferousglands, structure of—Calcareous concretions formed in theanterior pair of glands—The calcareous matter primarily anexcretion, but secondarily serves to neutralise the acidsgenerated during the digestive process.

7–15

CHAPTER II.
HABITS OF WORMS—continued.

Manner in which worms seize objects—Their power ofsuction—The instinct of plugging up the mouths of theirburrows—Stones piled over the burrows—The advantagesthus gained—Intelligence shown by worms in their manner ofplugging up their burrows—Various kinds of leaves and otherobjects thus used—Triangles of paper—Summary ofreasons for believing that worms exhibit someintelligence—Means by which they excavate their burrows, bypushing away the earth and swallowing it—Earth alsoswallowed for the nutritious matter which it contains—Depthto which worms burrow, and the construction of theirburrows—Burrows lined with castings, and in the upper partwith leaves—The lowest part paved with little stones orseeds—Manner in which the castings are ejected—Thecollapse of old burrows—Distribution ofworms—Tower-like castings in Bengal—Gigantic castingson the Nilgiri Mountains—Castings ejected in allcountries.

52–120

CHAPTER III.
THE AMOUNT OF FINE EARTH BROUGHT UP BYWORMS TO THE SURFACE.

Rate at which various objects strewed on

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