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Darwin Correspondence Project

To Peter Price    [after 10 October 1881?]1

worms certainly do work at a depth of four or five feet from the surface, but only when the earth is damp, and the state of the pier could not be attributed to their action if the soil was dry.2

Footnotes

The date is conjectured from the publication date of Earthworms, 10 October 1881 (Freeman 1977).
CD’s statement was quoted by Price in a talk, ‘The delapidation of one of the nave piers of Llandaff Cathedral through the action of earthworms’, given at a meeting of the Cardiff Naturalists’ Society and reported in the Western Mail, 6 April 1883, p. 4. No other record of the talk has been found. Based on CD’s remark, Price concluded that ‘as the cathedral was in ruins, and exposed to rains for years, and the pier in question was 450 or 500 years old, the theory was a tenable one’ (ibid.).

Bibliography

Earthworms: The formation of vegetable mould through the action of worms: with observations on their habits. By Charles Darwin. London: John Murray. 1881.

Freeman, Richard Broke. 1977. The works of Charles Darwin: an annotated bibliographical handlist. 2d edition. Folkestone, Kent: William Dawson & Sons. Hamden, Conn.: Archon Books, Shoe String Press.

Summary

Giving his opinion on the possible role of earthworms in the dilapidation of a pier in Llandaff Cathedral.

Letter details

Letter no.
DCP-LETT-13380F
From
Charles Robert Darwin
To
Peter Price
Sent from
Down
Source of text
Western Mail, 6 April 1883, p. 4

Please cite as

Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 13380F,” accessed on 28 March 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-13380F.xml

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