OXYGEN AND LUMINESCENCE, WITH A DE- 

 SCRIPTION OF METHODS FOR REMOVING 

 OXYGEN FROM CELLS AND FLUIDS. 



E. NEWTON HARVEY, 1 



PRINCETON UNIVERSITY. 

 (From the Stazione Zoologica, Naples.) 



So many luminous animals require dissolved gaseous oxygen 

 for luminescence that one might expect all to need it, but I have 

 recently discovered certain forms which can luminesce without 

 oxygen. Perhaps they utilize oxygen already bound up with the 

 luminous material or perhaps the old question as to the storing 

 of oxygen in cells must be reopened again. One should like to 

 say, "Without oxygen neither life nor light." Such an epigram 

 can only be true when, by oxygen, we refer to the element both 

 free and combined. If we speak of anaerobic existence, we must 

 also recognize anaerobic luminescence. 



I arrived at this discovery through the observation that, 

 although the luminescence of Cypridina is inhibited by strong 

 light in presence of oxygen but not in its absence, the lumi- 

 nescence of Mnemiopsis and other Ctenophores is inhibited by 

 light whether oxygen be present or not. This led me to re- 

 investigate methods of removing oxygen from fluids and the 

 discovery that Ctenophore extracts can still luminesce under 

 anaerobic conditions where other luminous forms (including 

 Cypridina) show no trace of luminescence. It seems vr im- 

 probable, then, that in Ctenophores oxygen is firmly bound and 

 that this is the reason we observe inhibition of their luminescence 

 by light in absence (apparent) of oxygen. If oxygen is not 

 bound in Ctenophores, their luminescence must result from a 

 totally different type of reaction from that in other forms, for I 

 believe the means employed for oxygen removal are without 

 criticism. 



1 Appointed to the A. A. A. S. table at Naples. Oct. i92S~Jan. 1926. 



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