54 Life and Tinmortality. 
directions, apparently as an object of touch, and there is good 
reason to believe that they are thus enabled to gain a general 
knowledge of the form of an object. Touch, including in 
this term the perception of a vibration, seems much the most 
highly developed of all their senses. The sense of smell is 
quite feeble, and is apparently confined to the perception of 
certain odors. They are quite indifferent to the human 
breath, even when tainted by tobacco, or to a pellet of cotton- 
wool with a few drops of Milleflcur’s perfume when held by 
pincers and moved about within a few inches of them. The 
perception of such an unnatural odor would be of no service 
to them. Now, as such timid creatures would almost cer- 
tainly exhibit some signs of any new impression, we may 
reasonably conclude that they did not perceive these odors. 
But when cabbage leaves and pieccs of onion were employed, 
both of which are devoured with much relish by worms, the 
result was different. These, with bits of fresh raw meat, have 
been buried in pots beneath one-fourth of an inch of common 
garden soil, or sometimes laid on pieces of tin foil in the 
earth, the ground being pressed down slightly, so as not to 
prevent the emission of any odor, and yet they were always 
discovered by the worms that were placed in the pots, and 
removed after varying periods of time. These facts indicate 
that worms possess some power of smell, and that they dis- 
cover by this means odoriferous and much-coveted kinds of 
food. 
That all animals which feed on various substances possess 
the sense of taste, is a wise presumption. This is certainly 
the case with worms. Cabbage leaves are much liked by 
worms, and it would seem that they are able to distinguish 
between the different varieties, but this may perhaps be owing 
to differences in their texture. When leaves of the cabbage, 
horse-radish and onion were given together, they manifestly 
preferred the last to the others. Celery is preferred to the 
leaves of the cabbage, lime-tree, ampelopsis and parsnip, and 
the leaves of the wild cherry and carrots, especially the latter, 
