ATTACKS OF ANTS ON MAN 459 



myself on the ground and rolling about, as I had seen the Indians do when 

 suffering from the stings of this ant. I had in my way to cross a strip of 

 burning sand, and then to wade through a lagoon, partly dried up, and not 

 more than two feet deep. Both these increased the torture ; I thought the 

 contact with the water would have alleviated it, but it was not so. 



"When I reached my house I immediately had recourse to hartshorn. No 

 one was near but an Indian woman, . . . and she, without my telling 

 her, . . . bound a ligature tightly above each ankle. After rubbing for 

 some time with the hartshorn and experiencing no relief, I caused her to rub 

 with oil, and then with oil and hartshorn mixed. None of these seemed to 

 have any effect; when the oil was made hot it relieved me a little, but very 

 little, indeed, and the wounds vv^hich were least rubbed ceased to pain me the 

 soonest, one that had not been touched being the first cured. 



It was about 2 p. m. when I was stung, and I experienced no alleviation of 

 the pain till 5'. During all this time my sufferings were indescribable. I can 

 only liken the pain to that of a hundred thousand nettle-stings. My feet and 

 sometimes my hands trembled as though I had the palsy, and for some time 

 the perspiration ran down my face from the pain. With difllculty I repressed 

 a strong inclination to vomit. I took a dose of laudanum at 4, and I think this 

 did more than anything to lull the pain. I had been stung on the two big toes 

 and on the soles of my feet, but the stings that caused me most suffering were 

 four close together among the fine veins below the left ankle. AVhen the pain 

 of all the others had subsided this continued to torment me, and pains shot 

 from it all over the forefoot and some way up the leg, notwithstanding the 

 bandages. 



"After the pain had become more bearable, it returned with great force on 

 two occasions, at 9 o'clock and at midnight, when I stepped out of my ham- 

 mock on my left foot, and each time caused me an hour of acute suffering. 

 Towards morning I slept, and when I woke up I felt no inconvenience beyond 

 a slight numbness in the feet, but the inflammation continued unabated for 

 thirty hours. It is curious that nothing was visible externally more than 

 would be caused by the stinging of an ordinary nettle. Possibly swelling was 

 prevented by the application of the hartshorn and oil, for I have heard of 

 cases where the swelling was considerable. Rubbing in the ingredients served 

 to increase the pain both at the time and afterwards."^ 



BENEFICIAL ANTS 



Not all the ants are to be looked upon as pests. Certain carnivorous 

 ants are rather to be regarded as beneficial to agriculture, and to man- 

 kind generally, on account of their destruction of caterpillars and other 

 noxious insects. In districts where cotton is grown the larvae of the cot- 

 ton moths are kept in check by the ants destroying the young ones, espe- 

 cially during the early part of the season. The invasion of houses by ant 

 colonies is a common occurrence in every part of Brazil. Ordinarily 

 these invasions are only temporary. During the hour or two when these 



21 Richard Spruce : Notes of a botanist on the Amazon and Andes, vol. i, pp. 362-364. 

 London, 1908. 



