(I suppose) by having been crushed, angles knocked off, and somewhat rolled
about. But not a few of the particles may have passed through the bodies
of worms during the years since the road was laid down. I still think that
the fragments are ground in the gizzards of worms, which always contain
bits of stone; but I must try and get more evidence. I have to-day started
a pot with worms in very fine soil, with sharp fragments of hard tiles laid
on the surface, and hope to see in the course of time whether any of those
become rounded. I do not think that more specimens from Abinger would aid
me...


LETTER 548. TO G.J. ROMANES.
Down, March 7th.

I was quite mistaken about the "Gardeners' Chronicle;" in my index there
are only the few enclosed and quite insignificant references having any
relation to the minds of animals. When I returned to my work, I found that
I had nearly completed my statement of facts about worms plugging up their
burrows with leaves (548/1. Chapter II., of "The Formation of Vegetable
Mould through the Action of Worms," 1881, contains a discussion on the
intelligence shown by worms in the manner of plugging up their burrows with
leaves (pages 78 et seq.).), etc., etc., so I waited until I had naturally
to draw up a few concluding remarks. I hope that it will not bore you to
read the few accompanying pages, and in the middle you will find a few
sentences with a sort of definition of, or rather discussion on,
intelligence. I am altogether dissatisfied with it. I tried to observe
what passed in my own mind when I did the work of a worm. If I come across
a professed metaphysician, I will ask him to give me a more technical
definition, with a few big words about the abstract, the concrete, the
absolute, and the infinite; but seriously, I should be grateful for any