When I stand over a patch of earth and wonder about the subterranean activity taking place underfoot, I am not alone. Gardeners are inquisitive by nature; we are explorers; we like to turn over a log or pull up a plant by the roots to see what's there. Most of the gardeners I know are, like me, quite interested in earthworms, in the work they do, churning the earth, making new dirt. We hold soil in our hands, squeeze it and smell it as if we are checking on a ripe melon, and we sift through it to see what inhabits it. As a gardener about the earthworm population in her garden, and I guarantee she will have something to say on the subject.
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​It seems strange, then, that most scientists before Charles Darwin didn't consider worms worthy of study. Very little was known about them in the 19th century when Darwin emerged as a sort of champion of worms, devoting his last book to a painstakingly detailed research of their Physiology and behavior. The Formation of Vegetable Mold, Through the Action of Worms, With Observations on Their Habits, was published in 1881. He was an old man when he wrote wrote the book, but the subject had interested him for decades.

How could such an insignificant creature capture the attention of a distinguished scientist like Darwin? He knew from an early age that earthworms were capable of far more than most scientists gave them credit for. He recognized, in a way that no scientists before him had, that they possessed an ability to bring about gradual geological changes over decades, even centuries. This notion-that the smallest changes could result in enormous outcomes-fit perfectly with his work on evolution and the origin of species.

This excerpt comes from Amy Stewart's The Earth Moved.  Stewart weaves together with her writing the natural history of earthworms with the human story of Charles Darwin, in a warmly affectionate book that could only come from an author whho is also a naturalist and friend to the worms.

It is truly worth the read. You will enjoy it immensely. You can find it here.

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