io Mr. Bauer’s microscopical observations on the 
after they had just been sixteen hours in water, they were 
all dead. 
If these worms are kept in a large glass, where the water 
cannot evaporate, they remain alive more than three months, 
but then they gradually die, and become as straight as needles : 
in that state they remain unaltered in size and shape, for more 
than fourteen months ; and even after that time I found only a 
few floating on the surface of the water, in a state of decay ; 
they were then much thinner than they had originally been, 
and were shrivelled at all their joints, the number of which 
could now be distinctly ascertained ; the worms then assume 
a brownish colour, and at the least touch, or the slightest agi- 
tation of the water in which they are kept, they fall to pieces 
almost at every joint. 
If the worms of one grain are put into water in a watch 
glass, they generally separate, and spread over a surface of 
about an inch in diameter, but during night, or if kept some 
hours in a dark place, they all assemble again, and entwist 
themselves together in a round cluster, the same as they 
originally formed within the cavity of the grain ; the same 
glutinous substance by which they were cemented together 
whilst within the grain, surrounds and envelopes them again ; 
and if they are suffered to get dry in that state, they retain 
their reviviscent property for as long a time as if they had 
been preserved within the grain. 
The above mentioned glutinous substance appears to be 
of an oily nature, for if a cluster of the worms be extracted 
from the grains, and be slightly rubbed on the object-glass, 
it leaves a stain on the glass, which, if viewed through the 
