122 ON AN UNRECORDED HABIT OF WHITE ANTS ; 
It remains now to show the connection of this subject with the 
special branch of Judicial Entomology alluded to by M. Mégnin 
and Mariano de la Paz Graells. In this particular case it does not 
appear that it is possible to realise M. Mégnin’s views as to the 
possibility of finding the cause of the death of the individual 
whose remains furnished the material for this note. We may, 
however, in this instance, examine into the claims of any verdict 
put forward in reference to this subject, and though we may not 
be able to pronounce what the cause was, we may investigate the 
reasonableness of anyone which might be alleged in explanation of 
the occurrence of the remains in question under the circumstances 
mentioned. 
From a previous examination of these remains, another observer 
who, in his investigations, removed the white ants and their nest, 
was led to regard the holes, which we have shown to have been 
caused by ‘“‘white ants,’ as shot holes; and to conclude, as I 
presume, ‘‘on grounds phrenological,” that the man to whom the 
remains had belonged had died a violent death”—a conclusion 
equally commendable with those given expression to on the same 
occasion, but with which we are not now concerned.* 
As concerning the time which has elapsed since the individual 
owner of the skeleton in which the termites occurred ceased to 
live, we can only state—Should one have previously ascertained 
(1) the time which must have been occupied by the usual 
destroyers of dead bodies, spoken of respectively as Coprophagt, 
Adtpophagt, Necrophagt, ana Detriticole to have played their 
successive parts ; (2) the time during which the skeleton underwent, 
if any, such changes as would serve to convert the bone into 
suitable food for the termites; and (3) the time which must have 
elapsed since the original ant colony was established in the remains 
as judged from its present state of social development, and from 
the degree in which the bones evince the destructive attacks of its 
members. ‘These factors would, when summed up, tell us what 
these investigators, in other instances, have sought to discover— 
namely, how long a time had elapsed since this aboriginal passed 
away. Not having as yet estimated the values of these factors we 
* Professor J. Bumenthal has examined the skull, which was among the 
bones, and has found that it evidently belonged to a male aboriginal not 
more than 25 years of age, and that it must have been buried for at least 
fifteen years. On scraping away the encrustation of dirt he found no less 
than nine shot holes in the skull, leading to the conclusion that the man to 
whom it belonged had died a violent death.— Courier. 
