154 



Life and Immortality. 



Not daring to attack the foe, and being unwilling that any 

 of their number should be led into slavery, or suffer aught 

 at the hands of others, they immediately set to work to 

 destroy all whom it was impossible to protect. 



Detailed as most of the neuters seemed to be in looking 

 after the wants of the immature, there were a few observed 

 running hither and thither and seizing in their jaws the newly- 

 developed, not to bear them out of the reach of danger, 



BATTLE BETWEEN ANTS. 

 Young Destroyed by Nurses. 



as was at first supposed, but to kill them so as to prevent 

 them from falling a living prey into the hands of the enemy. 



Knowing the sympathy and affection which the nurses are 

 ever wont to cherish towards the objects of their care, this 

 act of cruelty struck me as something very astonishing and 

 peculiar. 



Prompted by curiosity to know the nature of the wounds 

 thus inflicted, I placed upon the palm of my hand one of the 

 wounded ants, and made, by means of a microscope, a 



