PREFACE 



It will be found that the work reported in this book leans heavily 

 upon earthworm species whilst other oligochaetes such as the 

 fresh-water species are but little mentioned. Little is known of many 

 aspects of the physiology of fresh-water oligochaetes and it is 

 hoped that interesting problems in the field will be indicated in the 

 present work. 



Throughout the book three species occur again and again, 

 Lumhricus terrestris, Eisenia foetida and Allolobophora longa and 

 these have generally been abbreviated to L. terrestris, E. foetida and 

 A. longa to avoid tedious repetition. All other species are given 

 their full title unless described more than once in close proximity. 



I have endeavoured to cover the major advances in oligochaete 

 physiology since the publication of Stephenson's major work 

 "The Oligochaeta" in 1930. This is an excellent source book for 

 most early work. Advances in modern techniques have rendered 

 much of this early work out of date, however, and I hope that this 

 will be remedied by the present review. 



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