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Concentration Regulation and Volume Control in Lumbricus terrestris L.

Nature volume 155, page 635 (1945)Cite this article

Abstract

PREVIOUS work on these topics (Adolph and Adolph1, Adolph2, Maluf3, Wolf4, Maluf5, Wolf6) has assumed that the earthworm is a freshwater animal, and that volume changes are inversely proportional to changes in the concentration of the body fluids. Soil analyses (Russell7) show that the osmotic pressure of soil is higher than the above workers have assumed. Moreover, in the case of another annelid, Nereis diversicolor, Beadle8 has shown that the body volume can remain constant while the body fluid is diluted. Both assumptions may therefore prove unsound.

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References

  1. J. Exp. Zool., 43, 105 (1925).

  2. J. Exp. Zool., 47, 31 (1927).

  3. Zool. Jahrb., 59, 535 (1939).

  4. Anat. Rec., 75 (suppl.), 139 (1939).

  5. J. Cell. Comp. Physiol., 16, 175 (1940).

  6. Physiol. Zool., 13, 294 (1940).

  7. "Soil Conditions and Plant Growth" (7th edit., 1937); see p. 532.

  8. J. Exp. Biol., 14, 56 (1937).

  9. Biol. Rev., 18, 172 (1943).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Zoology, University of Bristol,

    WILLIAM STEPHENSON

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  1. WILLIAM STEPHENSON
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STEPHENSON, W. Concentration Regulation and Volume Control in Lumbricus terrestris L.. Nature 155, 635 (1945). https://doi.org/10.1038/155635a0

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