Note p — BOOK IV. (continued 2)

For a Sample of this Branch of my Survey, let us chuse the Tegument of Earth-Worms, which we shall find compleatly adapted to their Way or Life and Motion, being made in the most compleat Manner possible for terebrating the Earth, and creeping where their Occasions lead them. For their Body is made throughout of small Rings, and these Rings have a curious Apparatus of Muscles, enabling those Creatures with great Strength to dilate, extend, or contract their Annuli, and whole Body; those Annuli also are each of them armed with small, stiff, sharp Beards, or Prickles, which they can open, to lay hold on, or shut up close to their Body: And lastly, Under the Skin there lies a slimy Juice, that they emit, as Occasion is, at certain Perforations between the Annuli, to lubricate the Body, and facilitate their Passage into the Earth. By all which Means they are enabled with great Speed, Ease, and Safety, to thrust and wedge themselves into the Earth; which they could not do, had their Bodies been covered with Hair, Feathers, Scales, or such like Cloathing of the other Creatures. See more concerning this Animal, Book IX. Chap. 1. Note (a).