Worms 

 Years 



SCIENTIFIC SIDE-LIGHTS 



766 



of voided earth. Had this not been effectual- 

 ly done, the sharp points would have pre- 

 vented the retreat of the worms into their 

 burrows; and these structures would have 

 resembled traps armed with converging 

 points of wire, rendering the ingress of an 

 animal easy and its egress difficult or im- 

 possible. The skill shown by these worms 

 is noteworthy, and is the more remarkable, 

 as the Scotch pine is not a native of this 

 district. DARWIN Formation of Vegetable 

 Mould, ch. 2, p. 113. (A., 1882.) 



3785. WORMS PREPARE GROUND 

 FOR SEED Trituration, Aeration, and 

 Mixing of Soil. Worms prepare the ground 

 in an excellent manner for the growth of 

 fibrous-rooted plants and for seedlings of 

 all kinds. They periodically expose the 

 mold to the air, and sift it so that no 

 stones larger than the particles which they 

 can swallow are left in it. They mingle the 

 whole intimately together, like a gardener 

 who prepares fine soil for his choicest plants. 

 In this state it is well fitted to retain mois- 

 ture and to absorb all soluble substances, as 

 well as for the process of nitrification. The 

 bones of dead animals, the harder parts of 

 insects, the shells of land mollusks, leaves, 

 twigs, etc., are before long all buried beneath 

 the accumulated castings of worms, and are 

 thus brought in a more or less decayed state 

 within reach of the roots of plants. Worms 

 likewise drag an infinite number of dead 

 leaves and other parts of plants into their 

 burrows, partly for the sake of plugging 

 them up and partly as food. 



The leaves which are dragged into the 

 burrows as food, after being torn into the 

 finest shreds, partially digested, . . . are 

 commingled with much earth. This earth 

 forms the dark-colored, rich humus which al- 

 most everywhere covers the surface of the 

 land with a fairly well-defined layer or 

 mantle. DARWIN Formation of Vegetable 

 Mould, ch. 7, p. 310. (A., 1882.) 



3786. WORSHIP OF MAGNETIC 

 NEEDLE IN CHINA To the magnet the 

 Chinese have always paid divine honors. 

 " An astonishing number of offerings," says 

 the missionary Gutzlaff, " are brought to 

 the magnet; a piece of red cloth is thrown 

 over it, incense is kindled before it, and gold 

 paper, in the form of a Chinese ship, is 

 burned." Barrow also notes that a Chinese 

 navigator not only considers the magnet 

 needle as a guide to direct his track through 

 the ocean, but is persuaded that the spirit 

 by which its motions are influenced is the 

 guardian deity of his vessel. PARK BENJA- 

 MIN Intellectual Rise in Electricity, ch. 3, p. 

 80. (J. W., 1898.) 



3787. WORTH OF CULTURE 

 SHOWN BY ITS LACK Plants Unimproved 

 among Savages. If it has taken centuries 

 or thousands of years to improve or modify 

 most of our plants up to their present stand- 

 ard of usefulness to man, we can understand 

 how it is that neither Australia, the Cape 



of Good Hope, nor any other region inhabit- 

 ed by quite uncivilized man, has afforded 

 us a single plant worth culture. It is not 

 that these countries, so rich in species, do 

 not by a strange chance possess the aborig- 

 inal stocks of any useful plants, but that 

 the native plants have not been improved 

 by continued selection up to a standard of 

 perfection comparable with that acquired 

 by the plants in countries anciently civi- 

 lized. DARWIN Origin of Species, ch. 1, p. 

 32. (Burt.) 



3788. WRETCHEDNESS OF SAV- 

 AGERY The Fuegians. While going one 

 day [in 1832] on shore near Wollaston Is- 

 land, we pulled alongside a canoe with six 

 Fuegians. These were the most abject and 

 miserable creatures I anywhere beheld. . . . 

 These poor wretches were stunted in their 

 growth, their hideous faces bedaubed with 

 white paint, their skins filthy and greasy, 

 their hair entangled, their voices discordant, 

 and their gestures violent. Viewing such 

 men, one can hardly make oneself believe 

 that they are fellow creatures, and inhabit- 

 ants of the same world. It is a common 

 subject of conjecture what pleasure in life 

 some of the lower animals can enjoy: how 

 much more reasonably the same question 

 may be asked with respect to these bar- 

 barians ! At night five or six human beings, 

 naked and scarcely protected from the wind 

 and rain of this tempestuous climate, sleep 

 on the wet ground coiled up like animals. 

 Whenever it is low water, winter or sum- 

 mer, night or day, they must rise to pick 

 shellfish from the rocks; and the women 

 either dive to collect sea-eggs, or sit pa- 

 tiently in their canoes, and with a baited 

 hair-line without any hook jerk out little 

 fish. If a seal is killed, or the floating car- 

 cass of a putrid whale discovered, it is a 

 feast; and such miserable food is assisted 

 by a few tasteless berries and fungi. DAR- 

 WIN Naturalist's Voyage around the World, 

 ch. 10, p. 212. (A., 1898.) 



3789. WRITING ACROSS SPACE 



The Telautograph Celerity, Accuracy, and 

 Identification. In 1893 there was exhibited 

 in the electrical building at the World's Fair 

 an instrument invented by the writer called 

 the telautograph. As the word implies, it 

 is a system by which a man's own hand- 

 writing may be transmitted to a distance 

 through a wire and reproduced in facsimile 

 at the receiving end. . . . As one writes 

 his message in one city another pen in an- 

 other city follows the transmitting-pen with 

 perfect synchronism; it is as tho a man were 

 writing with a pen with two points widely 

 separated, both moving at the same time 

 and both making exactly the same motions. 

 By this system a man may transact business 

 with the same accuracy as by the United 

 States mail, and with the same celerity as 

 by the electric telegraph. 



A broker may buy or sell with his own 

 signature attached to the order, and do it 



