president's address. 179 



its Field sports, I am certain that two of them — viz., Shooting 

 and Fishing, may greatly tend to improve a man's knowledge of 

 the natural objects of the country over which he is walking. 

 In following both of these sports, he passes over many little 

 known localities, in which, if he only keep his " eyes well open," 

 he cannot fail to meet with some rare plant, or animal ; and, in 

 fishing more especially, as he wanders by the feide of a sweet 

 stream, or river, he can often better discover the Geological fea- 

 tures, and ascertain the more exact character of the rocks, or 

 banks, on its margin, and notice where the strata become visible 

 within its bed. Nevertheless, in recommending Fishing to Field 

 Naturalists, I must restrict that sport to artificial Fly-fishing, 

 or Trolling with a dead minnow, or fish, and not to angling with 

 a live worm; because from recent dissections of the Common 

 Earth-worm (Lumbricus terrestris), Mr. Lockhart Clarke has 

 ascertained that "the central organs of its nervous system con- 

 sist chiefly of a bilobed cephalic ganglion, and a double chain of 

 sub ventral ganglia, extending through the whole length of its 

 body." Also that "each ganglion gives off from its sides two 

 pairs of nerves, which, after sending some filaments to the septa 

 and muscular bands, supply the longitudinal, oblique, and circu- 

 lar muscles of the rings."* Indeed, he has shown that the 

 nervous system in this despised animal — which appears little 

 else than a muscular ringed tube — is extremely complex, and 

 abounds in ganglia, nervous centres, and nervous fibres. Al- 

 though it may be said that these nerves and ganglia are not 

 highly sensitive, still they ma^, on being injured or pricked, 

 produce vejy acute pain to the individual. Surely, then, a humane 

 sportsman ought 7iot to risk such a possibility/ by running a sharp 

 hook through the entire length of a poor worm, and then im- 

 merse it in an element to which it is a stranger. 



Two discoveries, connected with the County of Durham, still 

 remain to be stated, and which have been detailed to the scienti- 

 fic world in London. 



* See p. 344, and p. 347, " Proceedings of the Roj-al Society," Vol. 8, No. 24; and also a 

 paper, on the " DSveloppement du Lombric terrestre, par M. J. d' Udekem," with three 

 beautiful plates, in "Memoires publics par 1' Acad. Roy. de Belgique," Tom, 27, 1856. 

 VOL. III. PT. III. X 



