298 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. FaNNO 1747. 



viz. 240 to 760, instead of 250 to 750. Which little difference was possibly 

 occasioned by the necessity of dividing them into centuriae and turmae. 



For the mark » he accounts thus : the usual note of a thousand is either i be- 

 tween cc's, thus ci3 ; or else x, thus cx3. The former figure, when closed at 

 the top, exactly resembles an ancient m, thus o ; and the latter, when shut up, 

 a figure of eight inclined QO- Both which marks have been long used to express 

 a thousand. The latter is the mark before us, the x between cc's, but closed 

 in on all sides thus ®, if this be in reality the figure on the stone. For Mr. 

 Gordon in his Iter Septentrionale copying an inscription, having the mark of 

 four thousands, gave us the thousand inclosed on all sides, the very mark in our 

 inscription ; but on Mr. Horsley's inspection it turned out to be the second figure, 

 the thousand inclosed only at both ends thus 00 . 



The last part therefore of the inscription is to be thus understood : 



Conors i"" fida vARDVLorum civium Romanorum Eauitata Mtlliaria antoni- 



NiANA FECIT svB cvRA T. CO hegati, Tribuui, or centurionis leg/owm 



xx"^ Genio Romte. 



Which last words are to be applied to the emperor, and contain a compliment 

 at that time not unusual. 



Abstract of the Rev. Mr. Gould's Account of English Ants. By the Rev. Henry 

 Miles, D. D., F. R. S. N° 482, p. 351. 



This treatise on English ants contains, 1. Their different species and mecha- 

 nism. 2, Their manner of government, and a description of their several queens. 

 3. The production of their eggs, and process of the young. 4. The incessant 

 labours of the workers, or common ants; with many other curiosities observable 

 in these surprising insects. 



Five species of ants have occurred to the observation of our author. 1 . The 

 hill ant, vulgarly called the horse ant. 2. The jet ant. 3. The red ant. 4. The 

 common yellow ant. 5. The small black ant. 



Having described the size and colour of these, he proceeds to describe the 

 structure and nice mechanism of ants with great accuracy; observing, that be- 

 sides the viscera, there is in the body of ants a bag of corroding spirituous Jiquor, 

 which they can eject to a considerable distance at pleasure. This particular has 

 also been observed by other writers. 



He says he has met with a ligament in the red ant, which unites the breast 

 and body, consisting of 2 lobes somewhat round; but in other ants there appears 

 but one lobe, which rises higher, and is broader, than the lobes in the red. It 

 is this species of red ants which he has observed to have a sting, of the same 

 contexture with that of a bee, in miniature; in other ants he has met with no 

 sting; but they bite, or make a small incision, with their saws, ejecting some of 



