160 TEREDINID;E. 



parted ; for it is related of him that at one time he was 

 so terribly bitten " a bestiolis quibusdam nequam ac 

 damnificis " (it is not necessary to inquire of what 

 species), as earnestly to pray that if there were any 

 torments in Hell itself so dreadful as what he was then 

 enduring, the Lord would be pleased not to send him 

 there, for he should not be able to bear it. Patience, 

 however, is not one of the cardinal virtues that we 

 practise; and we therefore feel no compunction such 

 as Bellarmine had, but wage an incessant war of exter- 

 mination against the poor, not harmless Teredines. 



9. Remedies. Although our good neighbours the 

 Dutch have been the principal sufferers from this ma- 

 ritime plague, we have not been spared. In 1826 

 Mr. Osier believed that the Teredo, as a British animal, 

 was nearly and probably quite extinct. We should not 

 be sorry to find that this case of " dying out " had a 

 better foundation than many of those which have been 

 assumed by theoretical naturalists with respect to cer- 

 tain harmless mollusca. Unfortunately the ravages still 

 committed by this noxious mollusk in our harbours and 

 naval arsenals tell a different tale. In 1860 it was pro- 

 posed by a Committee of the British Association (of 

 which Committee I was chairman) to have certain 

 experiments made in the dockyard at Plymouth, 

 with a view to prevent the further destruction by the 

 Teredo of Government timber, which had cost the country 

 a considerable sum every year. A small grant had been 

 voted by the Association for such purposes. We find in 

 ' Household Words ' for 1857 the following statement: 

 " It has been estimated that at Plymouth and Devon- 

 port alone the boring worms have in one year destroyed 

 Government works to the amount of 8000." Per- 

 mission to have these experiments made was asked 



