EXPERIMENTS WITH INSENSIBLE ANTS, 99 
im size. The poor ant could not remove it herself, and, 
being a queen, never left the nest, so that I had no 
opportunity of doing so. For more than three months 
none of her companions performed this kind office for 
her. 
With reference to this part of the subject, also, I 
have made some experiments. 
January 3, 1876.—I immersed an ant (Lasius 
niger) in water for half an hour; and when she was 
then to all appearance drowned, I put her on a strip of 
paper leading from one of my nests to some food. The 
strip was half an inch wide; and one of my marked 
ants belonging to the same nest was passing continually 
to and fro over it to some food. The immersed ant lay 
there an hour before she recovered herself; and during 
this time the marked ant passed by eighteen times 
without taking the slightest notice of her. 
I then immersed another ant in the water for an 
hour, after which I placed her on the strip of paper asin 
the preceding case. She was three-quarters of an hour 
before she recovered: during this time two marked 
ants were passing to and fro; one of them went by 
eighteen times, and the other twenty times; and two 
other ants also went over the paper; but none of them 
took the slightest notice of their drowned friend. 
I then immersed another ant for an hour, and 
put her on the strip of paper. She took an hour to 
recover. The same two marked ants as in the previous 
observation were at work. One passed thirty times, the 
