XXII 
LATENT LIFE 
HEN a saucer of paste is left forgotten 
on a shelf it becomes the soil for an 
abundant growth of minute fungoid plants or 
molds. But in many cases it also shows a popu- 
lation of “ paste-eels,” transparent microscopic 
threadworms, the germs of which have been wafted 
into the saucer by air-currents. Millions of the 
closely related “‘ vinegar-eels’’ are sometimes to be 
found in vinegar-cruets which have been left 
uncorked. The worms seem to thrive in that 
strange habitat, and they make the vinegar turbid 
with their multitudes. Now, the paste-eels and 
vinegar-eels (and other “ Anguillulid Nematodes ”’) 
are noteworthy for their capacity for latent life. 
They can remain dried-up, without signs of any 
activity, for years, and yet become lively again 
when restored to, moisture and other appropriate 
conditions. It seems that some of them can endure 
the “suspended animation”? for fourteen years, 
and that the time required for revivification is 
proportionate to the duration of the latency. The 
eel worm which causes “ear-cockles ” in wheat is 
able to lie latent in its gall for over twenty years. 
The same phenomenon is illustrated by some mites, 
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