Dear Sir

I have been reading with much interest your little Essay on Earth Worms.¹

I agree in the main with most of your observations, though I cannot but feel that you have a little overestimated the value of your pets as agricultural laborers—² It seems to me that in accounting for the formation of mould you have scarcely made sufficient allowance for the annual decay of vegetation, the deposit of dust carried by the winds, the deposit of mud carried by the waters, the disintegration of rocks & hard soil caused by changes of temperature, the droppings of animals & birds, the labours of dung beetles & of carrion beetles, & the works of moles & mice.

However I am not writing this note with the view of playing the critic, but for the purpose of making you acquainted with one or two facts, which you may possibly deem of some slight interest—

1^st. I observe that at p. 128 you cite D^r King as an authority for a worm which he saw in Ceylon “about two feet in length,” & you seem to regard that specimen as unusally large—³ Now, I had a worm some years ago which was 3 ft. 2 inch. long, & about the thickness of a gentleman’s umbrella stick— This creature had been brought from Ceylon by my friend Sir James Emerson Tennent & he told me that it had been found in the rich mud of one of the abandoned tanks.

2^d at p. 14 you speak of the ‘number of dead worms which may sometimes be seen lying on the ground,’ & you then cite M^r Galton as having seen last March a vast quantity in Hyde Park—⁴ In support of this statement, if indeed it requires any, I may here add that four or five years ago, I noticed several hundred dead worms as I was walking down the Mall in St James’ Park. I could see that many of these had travelled several yards from their holes before they had died, as their tracts were plainly visible on the soft sand. I know not what had killed them, but as it had been raining for a day or two before, I imagined at the time that they had come to the surface to avoid the water which had run into their burrows, & that exposure to the air had been fatal to them.

3^d. At p. 34 you cite Hoffmeister as an authority to prove that worms “pass the winter either singly or rolled up with others into a ball.”⁵ To this passage I can add as a note, that I have often, while digging in my father’s garden when a boy,⁶ turned up single worms that were obviously hybernating, & for that purpose had tied themselves up in a sort of lover’s knot. It used to amuse me as a boy to try to untie them without doing them any serious injury— I mention this fact, as I do not remember that I have ever seen the curious habit I have just mentioned alluded to by any naturalist.

The public will probably ask, ere long, for a second edition of your book,⁷ & in that event a few pages respecting their generative qualities would be interesting— Are they oviparous or viviparous? Do they pair like birds? or live in promiscuous concubinage? In what ratio do they encrease & multiply, that is, how many are born at a birth, & how many births in a year? What is the period of gestation? & what is the average term of life? I will only further add that since your book has appeared I have been asked at least half a dozen times by intelligent & generally well informed persons of both sexes, whether a worm cut in half will unite again, or grow into two worms!

All which teaches me that, as Naturalists, we have still much to learn.

Apologising for inflicting this long letter on you, I remain | yrs faithfully | J Pitt Taylor

Ch. Darwin Esq^r | &c &c &c