140 



Earthworms. 



These animals are so abundant, easily kept, and have snob 

 a wealth of literature in regard to them both in respect to their 

 natural history and concerning their structure, development and 

 physiology, that they become valuable as school material. 



For lessons, without going into the technical matters of their 

 structure and development, there is good material in the habus 

 of life of these animals. Among these are: Their method of loco- 

 motion, just how it is accomplished. This will require observa- 

 tion of method of elongation, of shortening of the body, of the use 

 of the mucos, of the position and method of using the minute 

 projections, found in rows along the sides of the body (called 

 setae); their method of making and using their burrows; their 

 method of feeding; their egg-laying and the hatching of the eggs; 

 their work in relation to the soil as shown in the work by Darwin 

 on "The Formation of Vegetable Mould by the Action of the 

 Worms." This book is very interesting and is instructive beyond 

 most books of its kind, giving, besides a wonderful chapter on 

 natural history, illustrations of how great things in nature are 

 accomplished by insignificent and quiet agents, and how the 

 patient, scientific method of observation and study may reveal the 

 most wonderful operations going on under our very feet. 



Earthworms may be kept indefinitely in a box half filled 

 with moist earth with a tightly fitting cover of either glass or 

 wood. The earth should contain decaying vegetable matter and 

 should be kept moist. 



