VERMES. 77 
third of a line in thickness. It is of a cylindrical form, the head deeply 
indented by a groove ; the posterior extremity obtuse. The whole is of 
a dark liver-brown colour, almost black. 
The Gordius aquaticus is extensively dispersed. I have found it in 
greatest numbers in a small spring well in Linlithgowshire, a few feet in 
diameter, and not above three feet deep, where it lay at the bottom, and 
could be easily brought up with the decaying leaves. It occurred in 
Coldingham Loch, besides various other places. 
But after having obtained numerous specimens with facility from 
the well, a subsequent search there, after an interval of several years, 
was unsuccessful. 
A vulgar prejudice ascribes whitlow to the bite of the Hair Worm, 
which has no means of inflicting a wound. Likewise there is little doubt 
that the like prejudice, crediting this animal’s metamorphosis to an eel, 
arises from its appearance. 
A person in Edinburgh, belonging to the establishment of the Royal 
Bank, alarmed by an unusual sensation in his throat after a copious 
draught of water, contrived to free himself quickly in extracting one of 
these animals. ‘Two days afterwards, it was brought to me and delineated 
while in a lively condition.—Plate IX. fig. 14. 
Specimens remain very long plain and entire amidst the water 
wherein they die. 
§ 3. Gorprus sPINIFER.—The subjects of the preceding paragraph are 
definitely characterised by a deep indentation of the head, a slit in the 
under surface indicating the position of the mouth, and an obtuse extre- 
mity, terminating the gradually diminishing body. 
Here we are presuming that such subjects are perfect, and that 
neither anterior nor posterior extremity has been mutilated. 
There is another section, corresponding in general character, but dis- 
tinguished by the termination of the body in a spinous or cartilaginous 
process. 
The specimens I have had of the former, invariably wanting this 
