MR W. BAIllD 0:S THE HAIR-WORM. 



2t 



tliis belief, by actual experiment : that tliey have thrown horse hairs into 

 the water, and actually seen them come forth Kving Grordii. No later 

 than last week, an intelligent farmer assui-ed me with much gravity 

 and sincerity, that he had actually seen horse-hairs placed in the water 

 and become living worms ; but when pressed upon the subject, his 

 behef arose from his having seen those hairs when taken out of the 

 water, and placed upon the palm of his hand, curl up like worms. 

 AVhen the learned herbalist, Grerard, can confidently state, that he has 

 seen the Barnacle Goose spring forth full fledged, and in all his plumy 

 glory, out of the diminutive barnacle shell, we need not so much 

 wonder at the confident simplicity of our less learned rustics, with re- 

 gard to an animal which possesses certainly very much the appearance 

 of a horse hair. Linnaeus, in his Systema Naturse, mentions this 

 opinion also, so that it appears it is not confined to this country alone. 

 It is reported also of the Grordius, that if handled without sufficient 

 caution, it will inflict a wound at the end of the fingers, and produce 

 whitlow. Linnaeus, in his Fauna Suecica, says, that the rustics of 

 Smolandia believe that the bite of this worm causes the whitlow, and 

 that they call the whitlow in their language Onda Betet, and that they 

 give the same name to the worm itself. But though they believe thus 

 much, he says, they are ignorant whether it enters the body like the 

 Guinea- worm. He farther states that these rustics have a method of 

 curing the whitlow, produced by the bite of this worm, by making an 

 incision with a knife, with which they had previously divided the 

 animal into minute segments. 



The serpent-like appearance of the worm, with the natural credulity 

 and love of magnifjdng the dangers of an animal, the nature of which 

 they are not acquainted with, will sufficiently explain these fables. 



Linnaeus further mentions, as the opinion of these rustics of 

 Smolandia, that if this worm be cut into pieces, each separate portion 

 will, polj'pe-Hke, become a perfect animal. On Satiirday the 29th of 

 June, I cut one of these animals into six pieces, and left them in the 

 saucer, in which the worm had previously been Ijdng, for twenty days. 

 On Wednesday, July 3, the intermediate portions between the tail and 

 the head were found to be dead, having lived up to that day, but no 

 appearance of the slightest reproduction was observable. The two 

 extremities on the 4th were still alive, and shewed considerable powers 

 of life, but not the slightest sjTuptom of reproduction was observable in 

 either of them. 



"WTien full grown, the Gordius appears to be about 10 inches in 

 length : it is round and filiform, considerably resembling a horse hair 

 or hog's bristle in diameter and general appearance ; the body is of 

 equal size and diameter throughout its whole length, and has its two 

 extremeties darker than the rest of the body, which is generally of a 

 brown colour. In all the specimens which I have examined the tail is 

 bifid, being divided into a fork, with very short obtuse legs. The 



