EFFECT OF SCOURING ON WORMS. 169 



sickly or diseased ones at once removed as soon 

 as detected, they may be preserved lively and well 

 for several weeks or even months. I have preserved 

 them in this manner from the beginning of March to the 

 middle of June. In this way they will shortly become 

 tough as pieces of gimp from the astringency of the bole. 

 The first indications of disease in the worms are a swell- 

 ing of the band, and the appearance of contractions and 

 knots here and there in their bodies ; and all such as 

 exhibit those symptoms must be immediately removed, 

 otherwise the whole will speedily become infected ; as 

 cholera or dysentery, or even typhus itself, are not more 

 contagious amongst the human species, than disease is 

 amongst worms. 



The rationale of the above process is simply this : 

 The mechanical action of the fibres of the moss upon 

 the bodies of the worms as they insinuate themselves 

 through it, cleans their skins from all superabundant 

 mucus, and their interior from intestinal matter ; while 

 the skin, by being divested of a certain portion of its 

 redundant moisture, becomes very much toughened and 

 more transparent in texture, to accomplish which the 

 astringency of the bole Armenian very materially assists. 

 This is the true theory concerning the scouring of 

 worms a process which not only improves their ap- 

 pearance and renders them vastly more attractive to 

 the fish, but also enables them to live a much longer 

 time in the water, without breaking upon the hook and 

 exposing it ; points of the utmost importance, as the 

 more lively the worm is in the water, and the more com- 



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