THE EARTHWOKM. 19 



some time, so as to arrive at a still higher degree of 

 development before commencing to maintain an in- 

 dependent existence*." 



Although, however, the young worm is born in the 

 ftdly-developed shape of its parent, yet, as it increases 

 in size, the number of its rings is augmented by the 

 subdivision of those which it possessed at its birth, — 

 a circumstance that denotes its humble position in 

 the animal scale ; for the lower we descend, the more 

 frequently we find living forms endowed with the 

 power to reproduce, by a vegetative process, similarly 

 organized portions of their frame after they have left 

 the body of the parent. Notwithstanding, however, 

 that the worm occupies so humble a position, you 

 wiU have seen, from the preceding outline of its ana- 

 tomy, that no essential parts of its structure are want- 

 ing, and that, like all other created beings, it is per- 

 fect, so far as regards adaptation to its mode of ex- 

 istence. It is not iudeed furnished (according to our 

 present knowledge) with any of those more delicate 

 organs of sense that characterize the higher animals ; 

 but then, of what service would eyes and ears be to a 

 creature which we know spends the greater portion of 

 its existence underground ? Its dwelling consists of 

 one or more burrows, of the same shape as its body, 

 which it constructs beneath the surface, and lines 

 with a kiad of slime, so as to render the walls con- 

 sistent, and thus prevent the soil from falling ia and 

 closing up the cavity. These burrows it quits when 

 * Carpenter's ' Comparative Physiolog'y,' p. 693. 



