JOURNAL 



ppto JBorh ^nkraologirfll ftnwty. 



Vol. VI. DECEMBER, 1898. No. 4. 



A CONTRIBUTION TO THE STUDY OF THE FAUNA 

 OF THE GRAVE. A STUDY OF ON HUN- 

 DRED AND FIFTY DISINTERMENTS, 

 WITH SOME ADDITIONAL EXPER- 

 IMENTAL OBSERVATIONS. 



By Murray Galt Motter, B.S., M.A., M.D. 



Volunteer in the United States Bureau of Animal Industry. 



It were fitting, at the very outset of this report, to make acknowl- 

 edgment of the kindly interest and assistance, through which alone 

 the work was made possible : To Dr. Ch. Wardell Styles, Zoologist 

 of the Bureau of Animal Industry, U. S. Department of Agricul- 

 ture, for the facilities of his laboratory ; to the Entomologist, Dr. L. 

 O. Howard, and his assistants, Messrs. Schwarz, Coquillett, Pergande, 

 Banks, and Chittenden, and to Messrs. Simpson and Benedict, of the 

 Smithsonian Institution, who, by their specific determinations and 

 valued suggestions, have brought order out of the chaos of an amateur 

 collector. 



At the suggestion of Dr. Stiles, the work was undertaken to deter- 

 mine, if possible, the bearings of Megnin's "Application of Ento- 

 mology to Legal Medicine," in so far as they might be learned 

 through a faunistic study of such disinterments as we should have ac- 

 cess to, in and about the City of Washington. The collection and 

 superficial differentiation of specimens were made by the writer, for the 

 most part without assistance, it being found better to have all the ob- 

 servations made by the same individual. While, by this plan, less 

 was accomplished in the way of collecting, what was done was done 

 more thoroughly and uniformly. It is to be regretted that, owing to 

 these circumstances, it was impossible to take fuller, more detailed 

 notes of the general conditions observed in each disinterment. 



