���Jim wrote: >Darwin did write a wonderful book on worms (and books on many >other topics) that should be required reading for all people wanting >to emulate his great mind. He even describes some tests of >worm's perceptual abilities based on research conducted in his study. >The essential question was whether worms pull the narrowest part of >leaves into their holes on cold nights by trial and error or by first >feeling out the narrowest point.
Darwin's meticulous experimental results are online here: http://tinyurl.com/yf3rbs3 pp. 92-93 The percentage results of the foregoing observations on the manner in which worms draw various kinds of objects into the mouths of their burrows may be abridged as follows… Michael wrote: >I am skeptical to apply any type of conditioning principles to >worms and other small organisms. For one thing worms secrete >pheronomes that are important in their navigation… […] Darwin wrote (p. 100): To sum up, as chance does not determine the manner in which objects are drawn into the burrows, and as the existence of specialized instincts for each particular case cannot be admitted, the first and most natural supposition is that worms try all methods until they at last succeed; but many appearances are opposed to such a supposition. One alternative alone is left, namely, that worms, although standing low in the scale of organization, possess some degree of intelligence. This will strike every one as very improbable; but it may be doubted whether we know enough about the nervous system of the lower animals to justify our natural distrust of such a conclusion. With respect to the small size of the cerebral ganglia, we should remember what a mass of inherited knowledge, with some power of adapting means to an end, is crowded into the minute brain of a worker-ant. Allen Esterson Former lecturer, Science Department Southwark College, London http://www.esterson.org --- To make changes to your subscription contact: Bill Southerly ([email protected])
