the Worm, in zoology; a genus of insects belonging to the order of vermes intestina. The body is cylindrical, annulated, with an elevated belt near the middle, and a vent-hole on its side. There are two species of this animal.

the earthworm, Mr Barlow observes, differs extremely in colour and external appearance in the different periods of its growth, which has occasioned people little acquainted with the variations of this kind of animals to make four or five different species of them: The general colour is a dullish red.—They live under ground, never quitting the earth but after heavy rains or at the approach of storms, and in the season of their amours. The method to force them out is, either to water the ground with infusions of bitter plants, or to trample on it. The bare motion on the surface of the soil drives them up, in fear of being surprized by their formidable enemy the mole. The winding progression of the worm is facilitated by the inequalities of its body, armed with small, stiff, sharp-pointed bristles: when it means to infinuate itself into the earth, there oozes from its body a clammy liquor, by means of which it slides down. It never damages the roots of vegetables. Its food is a small portion of earth, which it has the faculty of digesting: The superfluity is ejected by way of excrement, under a vermicular appearance. Earth-worms are hermaphrodites, and have the parts of generation placed near the neck: their copulation is performed on the ground; nothing being more usual than to see it full of holes, which holes are thought to be made by those kind of worms coming to the surface in quest of females. During their coition they would sooner suffer themselves to be crushed than parted.

2. The marinus, marine worm, or lug, is of a pale red colour, and the body is composed of a number of annular joints; the skin is scabrous, and all the rings or joints are covered with little prominences, which render it extremely rough to the touch. It is an inhabitant of the mud about the sea shores, and serves for food to many kinds of fish: surprizing large ones are to be met with about the Bognor rocks in Sussex. The fishermen bait their hooks and nets with it.

For the effects of these animals in the human body, and the method of expelling them, see MEDICINE-Index.