LETTER LXXVII. 



TO THE HON. DAINES BARRINGTON. 



SELBORNE, May 20, 1777. 



&ELBORNE, May 20, 1777. 



DEAR SIR, Lands that are subject to frequent inundations, 



always poor ; and, probably, the reason may be, because 



ie worms are drowned. The most insignificant insects and 



)tiles are of much more consequence, and have much more 

 influence in the economy of Nature, than the incurious are 

 aware of; and are mighty in their effect, from their minuteness. 

 which renders them less an object of attention ; and from their 

 numbers and fecundity. * Earth-worms, though in appearance 

 a small and despicable link in the chain of Nature, yet, if 

 lost, would make a lamentable chasm. For to say nothin^ of 

 halt the birds, and some quadrupeds, which are almost entirely 

 supported by them, worms seem to be the great promoters of 

 vegetation, which would proceed but lamely without them, by 

 boring, perforating, and loosening the soil, and rendering it 

 pervious to rains and the fibres of plants, by drawing straws 

 and stalks of leaves into it; and, most of all, by throwing up 

 ich mhmte numbers of lumps of earth, called worm-casts. 



* The earth-worm has been long considered a viviparous animal, but 

 M. Leon Dufour seems to have determined that it is oviparous. The 



afpLTp A 7 Pe , ha / j struct J ure > bein S lon S> tapering, and terminated 

 at each end by a pencil of fringed membranaceous substance. They have 

 more the appearance, indeed, of a chrysalis or cocoon than of an eg- 

 but their pulp, &c. prove them to be true eggs. The worms, wfen 

 S afe C tv e with? Th 7 Tf' TS w " sturb ed, &11 sometimes retreat for 

 into thl clay. ' " Y ^ jut qui " edj r instincti vely dig 



cay. 

 Reaumur computes, though from what data it is difficult to conjectur 



, 



BE^n^llS? theworm of co/ruption:' Hampden wa 



m June, 1643. It is stated in the Times, that the skull was 



m some places perfectly bare, whilst in others the 'skin remained nearly 

 .11 e, upon which we discovered a number of maggots, and small red 



worm,, feeding with great activity. This was the only'spot wre any 



SnT V t were W'?^ as if th e brain contained Vital princLle 

 ^n,nf ^ engendered its own destruction ; otherwise, how can we 

 -count, after a lapse of nearly two centuries, for finding livin 



preying upon the seat of int/llect, when they were Swh2 



fcnnd- m no other part of the bodv?" ED 



T 



