Annuity 



SCIENTIFIC SIDE-LIGHTS 



40 



irresistibly to the conclusion that it has an 

 antiquity of at least one thousand years. 

 But when we notice, all around us, the 

 crumbling trunks of trees, half hidden in 

 the accumulating soil, we are induced to fix 

 on an antiquitj^ still more remote." AVE- 

 BURY Prehistoric Times, ch. 8, p. 244. (A., 

 1900.) 



O2. ANTITOXINS, THEORY OF Im- 

 munity of Patients after Recovery from 

 Some Diseases Bacteria Generate Their 

 Own Destroyers. Whenever bacteria, in- 

 troduced into the blood and tissues, fail to 

 multiply or produce infection, this inability 

 to perform their role is brought about by 

 some property in the living and normal 

 blood-serum which opposes their life and 

 action. . . . Where the blood and tis- 

 sues do not possess this power, the animal 

 is susceptible. Now, as we have already 

 seen from the experiments of Ogata, Kita- 

 sato, and others, the blood of an animal 

 dead of anthrax is protective against an- 

 thrax, from which and the foregoing it ap- 

 pears that microbes produce by their 

 growth in the tissues poisonous substances 

 we term toxins, which have the power of 

 producing in the blood and body cells sub- 

 stances inimical to themselves, named anti- 

 toxins, and so long as these latter sub- 

 stances remain in the tissues the body re- 

 mains insusceptible to further attacks of 

 the same disease. NEWMAN Bacteria, ch. 

 7, p. 249. (G. P. P., 1899.) 



203. ANTS, AMAZONS AMONG 



Preparation for Success in Warfare. This 

 year I have constantly seen amazons from 

 my ant-hill depart individually and go to a 

 great distance (as far as fifty paces from 

 their nests), marching by jerks. I have 

 watched them inspecting four or five nests 

 of the Fusca ants situated more than thirty 

 paces distant, searching for their openings 

 and examining their surroundings with 

 care. These facts more and more convince 

 me that each amazon studies on her own 

 account the situation of the nests of the 

 slaves in the neighborhood, and that that 

 is what enables the army to direct itself 

 with uniformity and to make a decision at 

 any given moment. FOREL Les Fourmis de 

 la Suisse, p. 321. (Translated for Scientific 

 Side-Lights.) 



204. ANTS AS KEEPERS OF LIVE 

 STOCK Property in Aphids. I have seen 

 the ants of two neighboring nests in 

 dispute over their plant-lice. If those 

 from the one strayed into that of the other, 

 these latter would rob them from the real 

 owners, and often these in turn would rob 

 the robbers. For ants are aware of the 

 value of these tiny animals that seem to 

 have been made for them. They form their 

 wealth; an ant-hill is rich according to its 

 number of plant-lice; they are their live 

 stock, their cows and goats. We had never 

 imagined that ants were a pastoral people. 



HUBEB Recherches sur les Moeurs dcs 

 Fourmis Indigenes, p. 194. (Translated for 

 Scientific Side-Lights.) 



205. ANTS DOMESTICATE OTHER 

 INSECTS Aphides "The Cows of the Ants." 

 It has long been known that ants derive 

 a very important part of their sustenance 

 from the sweet juice excreted by aphides. 

 These insects, in fact, as has been over and 

 over again observed, are the cows of the 

 ants ; in the words of Linnaeus, " Aphis 

 formicarum vacca." A good account of the 

 relations existing between ants and aphides 

 was given more than a hundred years ago 

 by the Abbe" Boisier de Sauvages. AVEBURY 

 Ants, Bees, and Wasps, ch. 4. p. 67. (A., 

 1900.) 



206. ANTS, MANIFESTATIONS OF 

 FRIENDSHIP AMONG When ants are 

 friendly, they have a multitude of manifes- 

 tations. Sometimes they conduct them- 

 selves as if not aware of each other's pres- 

 ence, only they show no fear, do not take 

 flight; or rather they stop. Then again 

 we see both of them patting their bodies 

 with very lively concussion before and be- 

 hind, or rapidly striking the forehead or 

 any other part of the body and then sepa- 

 rating. At other times only one of the two 

 will perform this maneuver facing the 

 other, which will feel about it for a time 

 with her antennae. On other occasions both 

 remain motionless in body, only striking 

 each other with their antenna?. ' This last 

 act is a less sure sign of friendship, and 

 we often witness it between ants in doubt 

 whether they are dealing with an enemy or 

 a friend. One almost never sees two friends 

 menace one another by a jesting bite or 

 curving their abdomens around at each 

 other. Two particular manifestations are 

 very characteristic between two friendly 

 ants, disgorging, and carrying one another 

 by mutual consent. If one of the two ants 

 is hungry or thirsty, and especially if she 

 perceives that the crop of the other is full, 

 which she recognizes by feeling the abdo- 

 men with her antennae, she asks for a 

 drink. . . . The ant (granting the re- 

 quest) has the appearance of enjoying it 

 and sometimes causes two or three drops 

 to appear, one after the other. This act of 

 disgorging plays a very important role in 

 the economy of an ant-hill ; it is a perfect 

 sign that the two ants are friends. FOREL 

 Les Fourmis de la Suisse, p. 244. (Trans- 

 lated for Scientific Side-Lights. ) 



2O 7. ANTS STORING GRAIN Solo- 

 mon's Statement Verified Objection Re- 

 futed by Fuller Knowledge. None of our 

 northern ants store up grain, and hence 

 there has been much discussion as to the 

 well-known passage of Solomon. . . . 

 It is, however, now a well-established fact 

 that more than one species of southern ants 

 do collect seeds of various kinds. The fact, 

 of course, has long been known in those 



