Alexander the Great and the Mystery of the Elephant Medallions

2. A Treasure

On August 20, 1877, Charles Darwin attended a local excavation on the lands of his good friend Thomas Henry Farrer of Abinger Hall, Surrey. The famous naturalist wished to test his theory that the castings (ejecta) of earthworms constantly formed a fresh vegetative surface on the earth, a subject to which he devoted his last book, The Formation of Vegetable Mould, through the Action of Worms, with Observations on Their Habits (1881). Through assiduous labors that some still consider beneath the dignity of so great a scientist, Darwin observed and measured the minutiae of the worm-world.1 At that time, earthworms enjoyed little in the way of scientific interest or popular favor. Non-biologists considered them slimy, clandestine creatures whose main work was the gruesome disposal of the dead. Shakespeare’s dying Mercutio had cried out, “A plague o’ both your houses! They have made worms’ meat of me.”2 In Hamlet, the worm-eaten corpse of “poor Yorick” inspired a discourse on t wo A Treasure 23 1. On this subject, see J. E. Satchell, ed., Earthworm Ecology from Darwin to Vermiculture (London: Chapman & Hall, 1983). An interesting defense of Darwin ’s last book was made on the centennial of his death by Stephen J. Gould, republished from the pages of Natural History (April 1982), in Hen’sTeeth and Horses’ Toes (New York: Norton, 1983), pp. 120–33. 2. Romeo and Juliet 3.1.111–12. 24 / A Treasure 3. Hamlet 5.1.231–35. Loam, a mixture of clay and sand, was fashioned into plaster and sometimes employed to seal the spout of a beer barrel (called a bunghole ). 4. Henry Mayhew, London Labour and the London Poor, vol. 2 (London: Griffen , Bohn, 1851), p. 80. 5. Charles Darwin, The Formation of Vegetable Mould, through the Action of Worms, with Observations on Their Habits (London: Murray, 1881; reprint, New York: D. Appleton, 1896), p. 305 (and cf. p. 165). the fate of even Alexander’s decomposed body: “Alexander died, Alexander was buried, Alexander returneth into dust; the dust is earth; of earth we make loam; and why of that loam, whereto he was converted, might they not stop a beer barrel?”3 From Babylon to a bunghole, the trail of Alexander’s remains allegedly passed through the intestines of worms and taught the world a humbling lesson about the transience of all earthly glory. This was a hard sermon, and it made the maligned earthworm all the more unlikable, even though maggots actually did most of this work. People believed, too, that worms harmed vegetation and ruined crops, a false accusation that gave us the word “vermin” from the Latin vermis, meaning worm. Except as bird food or bait, worms seemed totally useless . In Darwin’s day, London street vendors sold worms only in small quantities and “very grudgingly,” whereas about 2.5 million snails were sold per annum.4 Against this tide of ill will and ignorance, Darwin pursued his investigations of the worm’s true benefit to mankind. He calculated , among other things, that earthworms bring to the surface of Britain’s soil about 10,516 kilograms (more than eleven tons) of castings per acre per year.5 This process undermines objects and causes them to sink as a fresh “vegetable mould” simultaneously grows above them. Given enough time and worms, everything once on the surface will settle deeper and deeper underground. Darwin concluded: Archaeologists are probably not aware how much they owe to worms for the preservation of many ancient objects. Coins, gold ornaments, A Treasure / 25 6. Ibid., p. 176. 7. Ibid., p. 179. See “Roman Villa at Abinger, Surrey,” The Times (London), Wednesday, February 18, 1878, p. 7, for an account of the excavation at Abinger. 8. Summarized in Darwin’s Formation of Vegetable Mould, pp. 178–89. Darwin also enlisted the aid of his sons and other helpers in gathering such information from various sites in Britain. 9. Ibid., pp. 308–9. stone implements, &c., if dropped on the surface of the ground, will infallibly be buried by the castings of worms in a few years, and will thus be safely preserved, until the land at some future time is turned up.6 That is why Darwin himself turned up at Abinger, to observe firsthand what worms had done with a Roman villa “probably ruined and deserted 1400 or 1500 years ago.”7 This site, discovered accidentally during work in...