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300 THROUGH NORWAY WITII A KNAPSACK.
are extremely thin, cased in a shell of metallic
hardness, and their toe claws are wondrously sharp.
There is an important acid, called formic acid, from
formica, the Latin name for ants; the old chemists
obtained it by bruising unhappy ants in a mortar, and
distilling their remains. When ants are irritated, they eject
this acid, and so do the leaves of the stinging-nettle; from
which it may also be obtained by distillation. Chloroform
receives its name from having the same composition as
formic acid, but with chlorine substituting the oxygen.
It is supposed by some that the perspiration of ants
consists of this acid, and thus their reputed aversion to walk
over chalk has been explained; the theory being that the
formic acid causes the chalk to effervesce, and suffocates
the ant with the evolved carbonic acid. These facts
and speculations surround the ant with an additional
interest to the chemist in his laboratory, but by no
means increase its desirableness as a bed-fellow under
circumstances calculated to irritate the worthy little
animal. That they were seriously irritated in this
haybarn there can be no doubt; they had been gathered
with the hay, and carried far from their native
communities, and were wandering fretfully among the
labyrinth of dried vegetation in search of some solid
ground by which they might reach their homes. My
body was such a landing-place, and once reached, their
enterprising disposition led them to explore the island
by crawling under my clothes and all about my skin.
If I had ever doubted the theory of their irritant acid
perspiration, this night’s experience must have converted
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