70 



possession of articulated organs of motion, a negative character in which they are 

 separated from all insects and Crustacea." 



In 1798 Cuvier divided the Vermes of Linne into two leading groups — Chmtopoda^ 

 in which spines are present, and Apoda, in which they are absent. Even at this period 

 he saw, though only with dim insight, the necessity of separating the entozoa from the 

 true worms. In 1802 he read a paper before the "Institut," in which he first proposed 

 to designate the Ghcetopoda under the phrase red-hlooded worms, adding to it the leeches 

 and earthworms. " It was about this time that M. de Lamarck defined with increasing 

 clearness the line indicated by Cuvier which divided the Chcetopoda from the Intestina. 

 A new era in the history of the Annelida was now about to occur, for it was in the year 

 1812 that the class name Annelides sprang from the fertile and inventive fancy of 

 M. de Lamarck. By this denomination, Jbhrough various mutations, the worm tribe has 

 ever since been known among naturalists." (P. 162). 



The class Annelida, of Lamarck, as now constituted, is composed of a series of 

 animals which form only a portion of the heterogeneous class Vermes of Linne, which, in 

 addition to those now understood, included also intestinal worms, mollusks, zoophytes, 

 and sponges. Lamarck's Annelida are distinguished from all other worms by the 

 possession of red or coloured blood, for which reason they are sometimes called by the 

 * name of Red worms. Cuvier considered this characteristic one of great importance. In 

 his last edition of " Regne Animal " he arranged them under the Articulata, and on 

 account of their red blood gave them the chief position, but they are now generally 

 classified as a separate type below the latter ; their general appearance seems to point 

 them out as the representatives of the larval rather than the perfect state of insects, and 

 thus to indicate their proper position to be below both Insecta and Crustacea. There is 

 no doubt that a great many species have been confounded under the name of Lumbricus 

 terrestris, L., which is the name of a common European species, and it is most probable 

 that we have in Canada distinct species differing from those found in Europe. I do not 

 know of any treatise which describes any of the North American species ; but since I 

 have turned my attention to them I have noticed at least four very distinct forms 

 besides one specimen which upon being taken roughly in the fingers was distinctly and 

 beautifully phosphorescent. It is evident, however, that, with the constant interchange 

 of fruit trees and other plants, growing in pots and otherwise, between North America, 

 Europe, and other parts of the world, the transportation of a species from one part of the 

 world to another would be an exceedingly easy matter, and a small number of species in 

 this way might be distributed over a large area. "However, in 1868, Vaillant had 

 recognized in the several groups of the Oligochaeta (oXtyos = few, and x<^"^^ = ^ bristle), the 

 order in which lumbricus finds its place, no less than twenty-five genera, including quite 

 a large number of species from various parts of the world, which are represented in 

 nearly all regions of the globe, and which he divides into two families, distinguished by 

 the distribution of the setae. (1) Lumbricidce, with simple setse, including the earth- 

 worms ; and (2) Naidce, with bifid, or hair-like setae, embracing the fresh water species. 

 These families are again each divided into two sub-families, the former into LumbricidcB, 

 Lumbricince, where the setae are isolated or grouped two by two, and Lumbricidce, Enchy- 

 trceince, where they are three or four in number in bundles. The Naidae, in Naidce, 

 Naince, have the setae in four rows (exceptionally biserial,) and then all hair-like; and in 

 Naidae, Chaetogastrina, they are biserial but never hair-like.— -TVieoc^ore Gill, in Johnson\ 

 Cyclopaedia of Universal Knowledge. 



The latest system of classification is, I believe, that of Claus who divides the 

 Oligochaeta into Terricolae, or terrestial forms and Limicolae or aquatic. 



The structure of the body of the earthworm is very simple. In a large specimen it 

 consists of from 100 to 200 segments closely approximated to each other. The first 

 segment is elongated and proboscidi-form, and beneath there is what generally appears to 

 be a small depression, but which, when the worm is feeding, is seen to be a very capacious 

 mouth. The elongated first segment is the upper lip, and is used as an organ of prehen- 

 sion, by means of it the worm is able to take hold of any objects which it wants to take 

 to its burrow, and if watched by means of a lamp at night, for they are almost entirely 

 nocturnal in their habits, they may frequently be seen collecting any small objects which 



