Tales from the Underground by David Wolfe

Author:David Wolfe [DAVID W . WOLFE]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Basic Books
Published: 2012-01-23T16:00:00+00:00

To determine whether his worms could hear, Darwin got the entire family involved. He noted that the worms “took not the least notice of the shrill notes of a metal whistle” (blown by his grandson Bernard), “nor did they of the deepest and loudest tones of a bassoon” (played by his son Frank), and when they were placed near to the piano played as loudly as possible by Emma, “they remained perfectly quiet.” He concluded (again correctly) that earthworms are deaf, but he also recognized that extreme tactile sensitivity compensated somewhat for their deafness. When the pots containing worms were placed directly on top of the piano and Darwin himself banged out one note at a time, the worms “instantly retreated into their burrows” in response to the vibrations. Darwin wrote, a bit anthropo-morphically by today’s standards: “It may be well to remember how perfect the sense of touch becomes in a man when born blind and deaf, as are worms.”

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