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The Formation of Vegetable Mould Through the Action of Worms Charles Darwin Public domain text from Project Gutenberg. [Picture: Book cover] THE FORMATION OF VEGETABLE MOULD THROUGH THE ACTION OF WORMS WITH OBSERVATIONS ON THEIR HABITS. BY CHARLES DARWIN, LL.D., F.R.S. THIRTEENTH THOUSAND WITH ILLUSTRATIONS * * * * * LONDON JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET 1904 * * * * * PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED, LONDON AND BECCLES. * * * * * CONTENTS. 1 INTRODUCTION Page 1 6 CHAPTER I. HABITS OF WORMS. Nature of the sites inhabited Can live long under 7 15 water Nocturnal Wander about at night Often lie close to the mouths of their burrows, and are thus destroyed in large numbers by birds Structure Do not possess eyes, but can distinguish between light and darkness Retreat rapidly when brightly illuminated, not by a reflex action Power of attention Sensitive to heat and cold Completely deaf Sensitive to vibrations and to touch Feeble power of smell Taste Mental qualities Nature of food Omnivorous Digestion Leaves before being swallowed, moistened with a fluid of the nature of the pancreatic secretion Extra-stomachal digestion Calciferous glands, structure of Calcareous concretions formed i…

The Formation of Vegetable Mould Through the Action of Worms

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the following weights of the castings thrown up at the mouths of single burrows; the whole of which appeared to have been ejected within no long time, as was certainly the case in several instances. The castings were dried (excepting in one specified instance) by exposure during many days to the sun or before a hot fire. WEIGHT OF THE CASTINGS ACCUMULATED AT THE MOUTH OF A SINGLE BURROW. (1.) Down, Kent (sub-soil red clay, full of flints, 3.98 over-lying the chalk). The largest casting which I could find on the flanks of a steep valley, the sub-soil being here shallow. In this one case, the casting was not well dried (2.) Down. Largest casting which I could find (consisting 3.87 chiefly of calcareous matter), on extremely poor pasture land at the bottom of the valley mentioned under (1.) (3.) Down. A large casting, but not of unusual size, from 1.22 a nearly level field, poor pasture, laid down in a grass about 35 years before (4.) Down. Average weight of 11 not large castings 0.7 ejected on a sloping surface on my lawn, after they had suffered some loss of weight from being exposed during a considerable length of time to rain (5.) Near Nice in France. Average weight of 12 castings of 1.37 ordinary dimensions, collected by Dr. King on land which had not been mown for a long time and where worms abounded, viz., a lawn protected by shrubberies near the sea; soil sandy and calcareous; these castings had been exposed for some time to rain, before being collected, and must have lost some weight by disintegration, but they still retained their form (6.) The heaviest of the above twelve castings 1.76 (7.) Lower Bengal. Average weight of 22 castings, 1.24 collected by Mr. J. Scott, and stated by him to have been thrown up in the course of one or two nights (8.) The heaviest of the above 22 castings 2.09 (9.) Nilgiri Mountains, S. India; average weight of the 5 3.15 largest castings collected by Dr. King. They had been exposed to the rain of the last monsoon, and must have lost some weight (10.) The heaviest of the above 5 castings 4.34 71

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The Formation of Vegetable Mould Through the Action of Worms