FORMICIDiE — ANTS. 161 



Mr. Consett, in his Travels in Sweden, makes mention of 

 a young Swede who ate live Ants with the greatest relish im- 

 aginable.^ This author states also, that in some parts of 

 Sweden Ants are distilled along with rye, to give a flavor 

 to the inferior kinds of brandy.'^ 



The inhabitants of the Tonga Group have a superstitious 

 belief that when their kings, and matabooles, or inferior 

 chiefs, die, they are wafted to Biilotu — " the island of the 

 blessed," but the spirits of the lower class remain in the 

 world, and feed on Ants and lizards.^ 



Ants also furnish us with an acid, called by the chemists 

 Formic, which is said to answer the same purposes as the 

 acetous acid. It is obtained in two modes : 1st. By distilla- 

 tion ; the insects are introduced into a glass retort, distilled 

 by a gentle heat, and the acid is found in the recipient. 2d. 

 By the process called lixiviation ; the Ants are washed in 

 cold water, spread out upon a linen cloth, and boiling water 

 poured over them, which becomes charged with the acid 

 part.* 



Formic acid is shed so sensibly by the wood Ant, Formica 

 rufa, when an Ant-hill is stirred, that it can occasion an 

 inflammation. If a living frog, it is asserted, be fixed upon 

 an Ant-hill which is deranged, the animal will die in less 

 than five minutes, even without having been bitten by the 

 Ants.^ 



We read in Purchas's Pilgrims that the large Ant of the 

 West Indies is " so poysonfuU that herewith the Indians 

 infect their arrowes so remedilesse, that not foure of an 

 hundred which are wounded escape.'"^ 



The medicinal virtues of the Ant are as follows : "Ants, 

 Formica minor of Schroder, heat and dry, and incite to 

 venery ; their acid smell mightily refreshes the vital spirits. 

 They are said to cure the Flora, Lepra, and Lentigo. The 

 eggs (pupae) are effectual against deafness, and correct the 

 hairiness of the cheeks of children being rubbed thereon." 



The Horse-ant, Formica major, Schrod., "provokes to 



1 Trav. in Swed., p. 118, Lond. 1789, 4to. ' Ibid. 



3 Jenkin's Vot/. of U. S. Explor. Exped. Com. by Wilkes, 8vo. Auburn, 

 1852, p. 319. 



* Cuv. An. Eingd. — Insects, ii. 489. ^ Ibid. 



^ Pilgrims, iii. 996. 



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