ANABIOSIS OF THE EARTHWORM 



63 



EXPERIMENTS, SERIES II 



The second series was not so successful as the first, perhaps 

 because I used earthworms of a smaller size: they dried too 

 quickly and lost their elasticity. The conditions of these experi- 

 ments were the same as in the first series; the only difference was 

 that the worms were not exposed to exsiccation in flat glass dishes, 

 but in small cylindrical test-tubes. This seemed to be less 

 advantageous. 



The results of the exsiccation were as follows (table 4) : 



TABLE 4 



Worm no. 1 was completely overdried, and when placed on 

 moistened filter-paper showed no signs of life. Worms nos. 2 

 and 3 also did not revive. Worm no. 4, placed on moistened 

 filter-paper 31 VII llh, displayed after 1 hour some weak move- 

 ments in the caudal end of the body, but its proximal end was 

 dead. I tried to save the caudal end by cutting it off from the 

 proximal half of the body, but notwithstanding it died next day. 



EXPERIMENTS, SERIES III 



This series was undertaken with the purpose of finding out 

 whether it were possible to preserve the exsiccated worms and 

 how long at normal temperature. To this end I placed them, 

 after drying in sterilized test-tubes corked with cotton, with a 

 cork and covered with melted paraffin. 



The results of the exsiccation are given below (table 5) : 



