FIELD AND FOREST. 1 27 



gus and unite below to form a comparatively immense nerve cord ex- 

 tending the whole length of the body, beneath the digestive canal. 

 The ventral cord contains as many, somewhat obscure ganglionic en- 

 largements as there are internal chambers, from each of which pass two 

 pairs of nerves for the supply of the segments, while from between the 

 ganglions there is given off another pair for distribution on the septa. 

 Each nerve seems to be accompanied by a blood vessel, while on the 

 abdominal cord they are very numerous, covering the whole surface 

 with a tortuous net-work. At the points where the supra-cesophageal 

 ganglion merges into the beginning of the oesophageal ring, two nerves 

 are thrown off which soon divide into two, the second division speedily 

 separating into three, and the whole going to supply the lips and the 

 segments anterior to the brain, by far the most sensitive portions of the 

 body. 



Let ns uow bring the microscope to bear on Lumbricus. More 

 perfect and more delicate than the famous "Woven Wind" of India's 

 looms, is the creature's skin; more delicate, since with a powerful lens 

 it is still smooth, structureless and transparent, while that fine fabric 

 under the same glass, seems coarse as woven twine; more perfect, for 

 when did man's work ever equal the perfection of Nature's? It is ex- 

 tremely thin — so thin that my micrometer with two thousand lines to the 

 inch, fails to measure it — but withal strong enough to bear considerable 

 tension. It is with difficulty removed, and only in short strips, unless 

 the dead worm be allowed to remain in water for a short time, when 

 the cuticle spontaneously separates from the segments, projecting in 

 circular bullae adherent only at the inter-segmental rings, from which 

 a touch of the needles will free it. It is fixed to the sub-jacent mus- 

 cular layer by a tenacious areolar connective tissue, the cells being 

 microscopically large, and the partitions projecting from enlarged bases 

 very like long columns formed by the meeting of minute stalagmites 

 and stalactites. When the skin is torn off, or the partitions of the 

 areolar tissue are ruptured by the endosmotic action of water,, the ap- 

 pearance of the torn surface is much the same as that of a single layer 

 of epithelial scales upon a structureless basement membrane. If the 

 carmine solution be added, the beauty is enhanced, as the skin itself 

 takes the stain but slightly, and the regular, almost colorless bands 

 stretching across the red surface are pleasing even to the naked eye. 

 It appears to be adherent to the rings with the intervention of cells es- 



