7$ Proceedings. 



a length of 6 feet, but about 4 feet may be put down as the 

 average ; the thickness being roughly ^ inch. It secretes 

 a milky slime in such quantities that jets will spurt out of it 

 to a height of several inches when it is held in the hand. 

 This fluid lubricates the burrows in which it lives, and 

 enables it to move with very great rapidity; as it does so it 

 produces a gurgling sound, which is one of the readiest and 

 surest means of detecting its presence. When alive it has a 

 curious odour resembling that of creosote, which, when it 

 dies, becomes much stronger and more objectionable. It is 

 hardly surprising to learn that fowls refuse to touch it dead 

 or alive ; in decaying, the body passes into an oily fluid, 

 said by the natives to be very good for rheumatism. 

 Beside the worm is exhibited the cocoon, which contains a 

 single embryo enclosed in a tough leathery case. At the 

 present time we know of three specially large kinds of 

 earthworms, one from S. Africa, one from India and Ceylon, 

 and one from the south of Australia ; if future research 

 should reveal the presence of another in South America, it 

 would suggest the theory that these large worms are relics 

 of a once widely-spread race, just as we believe to be the 

 case with other forms of life found only in the southern 

 parts of the great land masses." 



The Rev. Robert Harley, M.A., F.R.S., read a paper 

 on "The Interchange of Two Differential Resolvents." 



