THREAD-WORMS. 307 



eight feet from the soil. In short, wherever he sought 

 them, they were to be found ; and in his opinion there 

 must have been thousands altogether. When first 

 noticed, the worms were alive and writhing : those 

 which lay upon the ground did not attempt to go 

 into it, but remained on the surface till dried up by 

 the sun ; and this was speedily the case with many 

 that were observed upon the flag-stones immediately 

 before the house ; but others, that were on the box 

 edging, and found shelter amongst the leaves of the 

 plants, retained their vitality for a longer period, and 

 reappeared the Tuesday following, when there was 

 another fall of rain at Fairford, though not in any 

 great quantity.* On placing some of the worms in 

 water, soon after they were obtained, they did not 

 shew much activity in their motions, but twisted 

 themselves into knots, and remained at the bottom 

 of the vessel in a kind of half-torpid state, for the 

 period of about fourteen days ; at the end of which 

 they died, notwithstanding the water had been occa- 

 sionally changed during the time. On inquiry I 

 found that a few of these worms had been seen also 

 in the neighbouring gardens, but only on the ground ; 

 it did not appear, however, that they had been looked 

 for elsewhere, nor that they had much attracted the 

 attention of other observers. 



Mr. Vines was kind enough to give me a number 

 of these worms, which he had preserved in spirits of 

 wine. They were very slender, of the thickness of 



* It appears, however, that there was an unusually heavy fall of 

 rain at Oxford on this day. 



