JOURNAL 
OF THE 
J2pfo Sort 6|nforaoIogirflI JEoripfyj. 
VoLYI. 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. Warded 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. 
