L 49 ] 



Vli. An Bssgy on Medical Entomology. By F. ChaU" 

 METQN, Physician to the Army. 



[Concluded from p. 351.] 



Jl* ORMiCA — The Ant. — These insects, on the pedicle of 

 their abdomen, have a small vertical scale, a large head, 

 small eyes, broken antennae, and strong mandibles. Each 

 species consists of three kinds j males and female?, provided 

 with long wings, and neutrals or labourers, who are desti- 

 tute of them. The two last kinds hare sharp retractile 

 stings. 



Ants live like bees in large societies. The government 

 of both is founded on injustice, ingratitude, and barbarity^ 

 There is no difference but in the choice of the victims j in 

 a bee-hive the males are banished or cut in pieces after they 

 have given birth to a numerous family ; in an ant-hill the 

 females are cruelly expelled as soon as their eggs have been 

 deposited*. 



The strong penetrating emanations which escape from an 

 ant-hill, have given reason to suspect that the insects which 

 inhabit it possess medicinal propertieSj and this conjecture 

 has often been verified by experience. A cataplasm of 

 bruised ants, with their nymphae, commonly called eggs, 

 and a portion of their habitation, has been sometimes ap- 

 plied with success to limbs attacked with rheumatic pains, 

 oedema, or palsy. The same epithem has increased the 

 energy of the organs of generation. . Baths rendered stimu- 

 lating by the expressed juice of a large quantity of ants, have 

 been found very efficacious in similar cases. The desire^ 

 no doubt, of having at all seasons a medicine proved to be 

 so useful, gave rise to the invention of oil of ants. In re- 

 gard to Hoffman and Kunrath's water of magnanimity, its 

 pompous title was never justified by experience. It may be 

 readily conceived, that in such compositions the virtue of 

 the ants is altered or destroyed, when it is considered that 

 it resides essentially in the acid, of which these insects fur- 

 nish, by mere lixiviation or distillation, a quantity equal to 

 lialf their weight. 



The formic acid, diluted with water, is agreeable to the 

 palate, and with the addition of a little sugar forms excel- 

 lent lemonade. Ardrisson and CEhrne have proposed to 

 substitute this acid in the room of vinegar for domestic 



• 1 am of opinion, however, tint these animals die s natural death, like 

 the done?. 



Vol. 22, No. 55. June 1805. D purposes. 



