66 PETER SCHMIDT 



one slowly. Next morning (9 VIII llh) the proximal end was 

 dead, the caudal end showed signs of life and contractions. At 

 13h the wonn died completely. This case demonstrates very 

 clearly, that its death was caused by the overdrying of the proxi- 

 mal end of the body, which became necrotic and, infected by 

 microorganisms, infected also the revived caudal end. 



Worm no. 6 had left the glass dish during the exsiccation and 

 was overdried in some parts of the body. Being revived it dis- 

 played some movements, but swellings had formed here and there 

 on its body. Its head revived and moved energetically, but in a 

 short time the worm had succumbed. 



The experiments of this series have shown, that earthworms 

 can revive after the loss of even 61 .6 per cent of the weight of the 

 body; i.e. of 73 per cent of the full quantity of water in the organism! 

 But the revivification takes place only under favorable conditions 

 of exsiccation, probably when it proceeds equally and gradually. 

 When the exsiccation was too rapid, some parts of the body were 

 overdried and the skin became crust-like. In this case evidently 

 the blood-vessels of the skin burst during the swelling and the 

 blood flowed out. This blood effusion caused, as it seems, an 

 infection with microorganisms and the overdried part of the body 

 perished, causing the death of the worm. This explains the 

 death of worms nos. 3 and 4, when some parts of the body were 

 revived and showed energetic movements. 



If the loss is more than 70 per cent of the weight of the body — 

 i.e., more than 83 per cent of the whole quantity of water — the 

 worm does not revive, but sometimes, nevertheless, it showed 

 weak movements, as, for instance, no. 5. If the exsiccation 

 was not equal and uniform in the whole body, the death of the 

 worm was possible even at the loss of less than 60 per cent of the 

 weight of the body (for instance, no. 6). 



EXPERIMENTS, SERIES V 



The fifth series was a continuation of the third series. As the 

 worms kept in the test-tubes died evidently through infection 

 with microorganisms, I determined to try whether the dried 

 worms could not be preserved at a low temperature. To this 



