Legal Entomology.
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LEGAL ENTOMOLOGY. By R. Vashon Rogers. EARLY in the eighteenth century, the monks of the monastery of St. An thony, in Brazil, brought an action of eject ment against some ants accused of interfering with convent property. Father Manoel Bernardes, in his " Nova Floresta," gives a full account of this law-suit. It arose in this wise. The ants in that part of the country were numerous, very large, and destructive; they were miners, and excavated extensive subterranean corridors and store-houses, and in the exercise of their own sweet will so undermined the cellars of the friars and so worked upon the foundations, that the whole convent became shaky and liable to collapse. Besides this, these insects actually stole the grain that the worthy brethren had carefully stored away for the use of the convent. The ants came in multitudes, and worked indefatigably by day and night. Starvation threat ened the monks, who tried to repel the in roads of their liliputian enemies without success. All physical means being unavail ing, recourse was had to the strong arm of the law; process duly issued in the name of the Minorite Friars of the Province of Pietade, in Maranhao, against the ants of the said territory, and the latter were duly sum moned before the bishop of the diocese, sitting as judge of the tribunal of Divine Providence. Counsel were employed on either side. The advocate for the friars deemed it necessary, in opening the argu ment, after evidence had been taken, to state that his clients, being mendicants, in obedi ence to the rules of their order lived on the contributions which they collected, and with great difficulty, from the pious inhabitants of the district; yet the ants, who were con sidered unholy, and for that reason were ab horred by St. Francis, not only persistently robbed the monks, but also endeavored to
turn them out of their convent and destroy it. Waxing eloquent, the pleader claimed that the ants should satisfactorily explain their conduct, or else death should come upon them, either by pestilence or by flood, or at the very least, they should be banished from the country forever. Counsel for the ants alleged that, having received from the Creator the gift of life, they had a perfect right to preserve it by all the means in their power; that in the practice and execution of these measures they gave to men the example of virtues with which they had been endowed : for example, pru dence, in thinking of the future and storing their food for a time of want; diligence, in gathering in this life treasures for the future, as St. Jerome says, " Formica dicitar strenuus quisque et providus operarius, qui presenti vita, velut in aestate, fructus justiciac quos in actenum recipiet sibi recondit"; the virtue of charity in helping one another when the burden was too heavy for one; and religion and piety, in ever burying their dead. He pointed out that it was hard for the plaintiffs to appreciate the gigantean labors of his puny clients, that they often carried burdens greater than their bodies, and sometimes their courage was greater than their strength. He admitted that the friars were more noble and more worthy, but yet before God they were only like ants, and the gift of reason scarcely outweighed their sin in having of fended the Creator by not observing the laws of reason as well as they did those of nature. It was thus the friars rendered themselves unworthy of the service and assistance of other creatures; and they had committed many greater crimes against the glory of God than the ants had in carrying off their flour and wheat. Then he claimed title in his clients, alleging that they were in posses-
