The Formation of Vegetable Mould Through the Action of Worms (Illustrated), by Charles Darwin
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The Formation of Vegetable Mould Through the Action of Worms (Illustrated), by Charles Darwin
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The share which worms have taken in the formation of the layer of vegetable mould, which covers the whole surface of the land in every moderately humid country, is the subject of the present volume. This mould is generally of a blackish colour and a few inches in thickness. In different districts it differs but little in appearance, although it may rest on various subsoils. The uniform fineness of the particles of which it is composed is one of its chief characteristic features; and this may be well observed in any gravelly country, where a recently-ploughed field immediately adjoins one which has long remained undisturbed for pasture, and where the vegetable mould is exposed on the sides of a ditch or hole. The subject may appear an insignificant one, but we shall see that it possesses some interest; and the maxim “de minimis non curat lex,” does not apply to science. Even Élie de Beaumont, who generally undervalues small agencies and their accumulated effects, remarks: [2] “La couche très-mince de la terre végétale est un monument d’une haute antiquité, et, par le fait de sa permanence, un objet digne d’occuper le géologue, et capable de lui fournir des remarques intéressantes.” Although the superficial layer of vegetable mould as a whole no doubt is of the highest antiquity, yet in regard to its permanence, we shall hereafter see reason to believe that its component particles are in most cases removed at not a very slow rate, and are replaced by others due to the disintegration of the underlying materials.
The Formation of Vegetable Mould Through the Action of Worms (Illustrated), by Charles Darwin - Amazon Sales Rank: #928018 in eBooks
- Published on: 2015-06-05
- Released on: 2015-06-05
- Format: Kindle eBook
The Formation of Vegetable Mould Through the Action of Worms (Illustrated), by Charles Darwin About the Author Charles Darwin was an English naturalist and author best-known for his revolutionary theories on the origin of species, human evolution, and natural selection. A life-long interest in the natural world led Darwin to neglect his medical studies and instead embark on a five-year scientific voyage on the HMS Beagle, where he established his reputation as a geologist and gathered much of the evidence that fuelled his later theories.A prolific writer, Darwin s most famous published works include The Voyage of the Beagle, On the Origin of Species, The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex, and The Expression of Emotions in Man and Animals. Darwin died in 1882, and in recognition of his contributions to science, is buried in Westminster Abbey along with John Herschel and Isaac Newton.
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8 of 9 people found the following review helpful. Lacks the figures and pictures By Neil R. Thomason This "reprinting" lacks the pictures and figures that Darwin regularly refers to. Without them, important parts of the book are difficult to understand. There is no excuse for such sloppy republication of a classic. Even the 5 star review above says: "[Warning: This edition does not include the pictures to which the text repeatedly refers; they are, however, available on the internet.]" The reviewer is enthusiastic about Darwin, not about this edition.Buy an edition that has the pictures and figures.
5 of 6 people found the following review helpful. Darwin the Naturalist, Not the Theoretician By Rob Hardy Charles Darwin's name is so firmly linked with evolution that it is often forgotten that he was interested in specifics of biology. For instance, while he was fretting for seventeen years over whether to publish about evolution, he was busy investigating barnacles. He was to publish an authoritative work on them. He also wrote about the geology he had seen on his travels in the _Beagle_, and did experiments on whether eggs or seeds could travel the oceans to get to new lands. He was constantly busy on other projects, constantly enquiring and doing his own research simply because he had an exemplary curiosity. That his curiosity would fix upon lowly earthworms might seem a condescension from the man who had the great idea that is the principle of all biology, but Darwin thought earthworms were important. "Worms have played a more important part in the history of the world than most persons would at first suppose," he writes in _The Formation of Vegetable Mould through the Action of Worms, with Observations on their Habits_, which was published in 1881, Darwin's last book (he wanted to get out his book on earthworms, he joked, "before joining them"). For this sesquicentennial of Darwin's birth, I wanted not to read his most influential works again, but to take up _Worms_ just to listen to Darwin the natural historian writing about a subject he obviously loved and which can never inspire condemnation from religious enthusiasts. The book is a delight. Always serious, and often with the stuffiness that is simply to be expected from scientific writing of the nineteenth century, Darwin is keen on earthworm behavior, even making informed speculation on earthworm mentality. The earthworm may be tiny, but Darwin brings up the next fact or the next experiment, one after another, to show how worms have affected geology, his other great interest.Earthworms had been a longstanding interest for Darwin. In 1837, he had read to the Geological Society of London his paper on the role of earthworms in soil formation. Some of the experiments, too, required long times of monitoring. Darwin had a field near his home spread with broken chalk in 1842, and dug it up 29 years later to see what had happened to the chalk layer. The chalk nodules did subside under the mould cast up by the worms, at a rate he could calculate at 0.22 inches per year. In a larger view, Darwin looked at the geological processes which worms cause, the denudation (removal of disintegrated rocks and soil to lower levels). The land may be sculpted by the sea, volcanoes, and earthquakes, but the little earthworms played a big role, too. Darwin had pots of earthworms so he could experiment on them. They have no eyes, and he thought that they could not respond to light, but found that somehow worms knew to withdraw from a bright light shone for a long while. They do not have any sense of hearing, as this whimsical passage makes clear: "They took not the least notice of the shrill notes from a metal whistle, which was repeatedly sounded near them; nor did they of the deepest and loudest notes of a bassoon." They dug burrows and pulled leaves into them, and Darwin was astonished to find that they did this in a methodical and even intelligent way. He gives a table of how leaves of different plants or triangles of paper were drawn into earthworm holes, statistically showing that the worms deliberately went for the narrow part of the object to pull in, rather than trying to get a blunter part in first. He gives evidence that although pulling leaves into a burrow might be instinctually commanded, the earthworms are capable of showing some degree of intelligence in how they orient the leaves for the job.Among Darwin's other great gifts was his ability to imagine changes over geological time. Evolution is mentioned exactly once in this volume. He takes note of the words of a critic who could not believe that earthworms had done as much work as Darwin proposed because they were too small and weak and the work was too stupendous. "Here we have an instance," said Darwin, "of that inability to sum up the effects of a continually recurrent cause, which has often retarded the progress of science, as formerly in the case of geology, and more recently in that of the principle of evolution." Clearly Darwin had no such inability. I have no doubt that researchers have since his time brought out bigger and more specialized volumes on the earthworm, and that earthworm science has greatly advanced in the century-and-a-quarter since this book came out. This one, however, is a delightful marker of the beginning of the scientific valuation of the earthworm, and a reminder of the broad yet deep interests of its accomplished author.[Warning: This edition does not include the pictures to which the text repeatedly refers; they are, however, available on the internet.]
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful. Squirms its way into great historical significance By W. David McGuinn Jr. Earthworms - Really. Why would I read a 19th century book on earthworms? Well you do for lots of reasons but mostly to see the transition of biology from the observations of a puttering English elite into a maturing quantitative science. This is Darwin's last book and maybe his best. If I were teaching an entry level graduate biology course this would be required reading.Contrary to the common misconception, Darwin did not delay the publication of "On the Origin of Species" because he was afraid of religious scorn. He delayed because he knew the theory of evolution would be attacked by the orthodox followers of Georges Cuvier, the influential French naturalist who founded almost singlehandedly the sciences of comparative anatomy and paleontology. Darwin knew that his evidence for evolution was only observational and that while he had a mechanism for natural selection he did not have one for what we would now call genetic variation. He also felt that while his narration of the `Voyage of the Beagle' had given him fame it had not given him scientific legitimacy. During the 20 years between the publication of `Voyage' and `Origin', Darwin sought this legitimacy through his studies of invertebrates. One of his passions during this time was a theory he developed that earthworms and their effluvia were the main source of the rich soils of England and as such essential to agriculture. He was right, but the acclaim and influence of `Origins' necessitated a long delay in his pursuit of this thesis until his very latest years. By then he was the best biologist in the world, and he turned all his considerable skill to an understanding of the world's greatest and most persistent excavators and fish bate, the common night crawler.So this book is a systematic look at the life cycle, habit and ecological importance of Lumbricus terrestris, but in the process Darwin shows how science had changed since the publication of `Origins'. Many natural history books from the first half of the 19th century are compilations of observations in the notebooks of rich eccentrics. Here Darwin demonstrates planned quantitative experiments to determine everything from the behavior of his subjects (how many leaves do they pull into a borough in the course of a night) to how much worm exhaust per year it takes to bury a Roman ruin. The detail is fascinating. Darwin develops each idea carefully and thoroughly. He painstakingly introduces into each experiment some important control to isolate the observed effect. You will particularly enjoy the experiment by which he determines that earthworms are deaf by having his grandson blow a horn and make other noises while he observes the lack of squiggly response. Every experiment is so carefully explained that you could reproduce it today. All the intellectual tools a young graduate student needs to obtain early in his or her career are here in an entertaining package.The book also gives considerable insight into Darwin the man and how he thought. It shows his way of life and his increasing infirmity while demonstrating that his curiosity and love of life never waned. The verbal portraits of the English country side are vivid. The demonstration of the depth of 19th century understanding is enlightening. This book is the legacy of the birth of modern science and a delight to read.
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The Formation of Vegetable Mould Through the Action of Worms (Illustrated), by Charles Darwin
The Formation of Vegetable Mould Through the Action of Worms (Illustrated), by Charles Darwin
