54 Life and Immortality. 



directions, apparently as an object of touch, and there is good 

 reason to believe that they are thus enabled to gain a general 

 knowledge of the form of an object. Touch, including in 

 this term the perception of a vibration, seems much the most 

 highly developed of all their senses. The sense of smell is 

 quite feeble, and is apparently confined to the perception of 

 certain odors. They are quite indifferent to the human 

 breath, even when tainted by tobacco, or to a pellet of cotton- 

 wool with a few drops of Millefleur's perfume when held by 

 pincers and moved about within a few inches of them. The 

 perception of such an unnatural odor would be of no service 

 to them. Now, as such timid creatures would almost cer- 

 tainly exhibit some signs of any new impression, we may 

 reasonably conclude that they did not perceive these odors. 

 But when cabbage leaves and pieces of onion were employed, 

 both of which are devoured with much relish by worms, the 

 result was different. These, with bits of fresh raw meat, have 

 been buried in pots beneath one-fourth of an inch of common 

 garden soil, or sometimes laid on pieces of tin foil in the 

 earth, the ground being pressed down slightly, so as not to 

 prevent the emission of any odor, and yet they were always 

 discovered by the worms that were placed in the pots, and 

 removed after varying periods of time. These facts indicate 

 that worms possess some power of smell, and that they dis- 

 cover by this means odoriferous and much-coveted kinds of 

 food. 



That all animals which feed on various substances possess 

 the sense of taste, is a wise presumption. This is certainly 

 the case with worms. Cabbage leaves are much liked by 

 worms, and it would seem that they are able to distinguish 

 between the different varieties, but this may perhaps be owing 

 to differences in their texture. When leaves of the cabbage, 

 horse-radish and onion were given together, they manifestly 

 preferred the last to the others. Celery is preferred to the 

 leaves of the cabbage, lime-tree, ampelopsis and parsnip, and 

 the leaves of the wild cherry and carrots, especially the latter, 



