214 GEOLOGY [Chap. IX 



Letter 548 altogether dissatisfied with it. I tried to observe what passed 

 in my own mind when I did the work of a worm. If I come 

 across a professed metaphysician, I will ask him to give me a 

 more technical definition, with a few big words about the 

 abstract, the concrete, the absolute, and the infinite ; but 

 seriously, I should be grateful for any suggestions, for it 

 will hardly do to assume that every fool knows what " in- 

 telligent" means. 1 You will understand that the MS. is 

 only the first rough copy, and will need much correction. 

 Please return it, for I have no other copy— only a few 

 memoranda. When I think how it has bothered me to 

 know what I mean by " intelligent," I am sorry for you in 

 your great work on the minds of animals. 



I daresay that I shall have to alter wholly the MS. 



Letter 549 To Francis Galton. 



Down, March 8th [18S1]. 



Very many thanks for your note. 1 have been observing 

 the [worm] tracks on my walks for several months, and they 

 occur (or can be seen) only after heavy rain. As I know that 

 worms which are going to die (generally from the parasitic 

 larva of a fly) always come out of their burrows, I have 

 looked out during these months, and have usually found 

 in the morning only from one to three or four along the 

 whole length of my walks. On the other hand, I remember 

 having in former years seen scores or hundreds of dead 

 worms 2 after heavy rain. I cannot possibly believe that 

 worms are drowned in the course of even three or four days' 

 immersion ; and I am inclined to conclude that the death of 



1 " Mr. Romanes, who has specially studied the minds of animals, 

 believes that we can safely infer intelligence only when we see an 

 individual profiting by its own experience. . . . Now, if worms try to 

 drag objects into their burrows, first in one way and then in another, 

 until they at last succeed, they profit, at least in each particular 

 instance, by experience" {The Formation of Vegetable Mould, 1881, 



P- 95)- 



2 " After heavy rain succeeding dry weather, an astonishing number 

 of dead worms may sometimes be seen lying on the ground. Mr. Galton 

 informs me that on one occasion (March, 1881), the dead worms 

 averaged one for every two-and-a-half paces in length on a walk in 

 Hyde Park, four paces in width " (Joe. cit, p. 14). 



