Earth- Worms in History. 65 



As worms are not controlled by special instincts in each 

 particular case, though possessing a general instinct to plug 

 up their burrows, and as chance is excluded, the next most 

 probable conclusion is that they try in many ways to draw 

 in objects and finally succeed in some one way. It is sur- 

 prising, however, that an animal so low in the scale as a 

 worm should have the capacity to act in this way, as many 

 higher animals have no such capacity, the instincts of the 

 latter often being followed in a senseless or purposeless 

 manner. 



We can safely infer intelligence, as Mr. Romanes, who 

 has specially studied animals, says, only when we see an 

 individual profiting by his own experiences. That worms 

 are able to judge either before or after having drawn 

 an object close to the mouths of their burrows how best 

 to drag it in, shows that they must have acquired some 

 notion of its general shape. This they probably acquire by 

 touching it in many places with the anterior extremity of their 

 bodies, which serves them as a tactile organ. Man, even 

 when born blind and deaf, shows how perfect the sense of 

 touch may become, and if worms, which also come into 

 being in the same condition, have the power of acquiring 

 some notion, however rude, of the shape of an object and 

 their burrows, they deserve, it must seem to every sensible 

 mind, to be called intelligent creatures, for they act in such 

 a case in nearly the same manner as a man would under 

 similar circumstances. That worms, which stand so low in 

 the scale of organization, should possess some degree of 

 intelligence, will doubtless strike everyone as very improb- 

 able. It may be doubted, however, whether we know 

 enough about the nervous system of the lower animals to 

 justify our natural distrust of such a conclusion. With re- 

 gard to the small size of the cerebral ganglia, we would do 

 well to remember what a mass of inherited knowledge, with 

 some power of adapting means to an end, is crowded into 

 the minute brain of a worker ant. 



