574 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



quantity of luminous particles pressed close- 

 ly one upon another, the most brilliant ones 

 being those which had been in contact with 

 the bottom. The water when taken up in 

 a bucket appeared to be full of phosphores- 

 cent bodies, from a half to three quarters 

 of an inch long, which sparkled when they 

 were brushed about by the hand. Nearly 

 four hundred of them were counted in a 

 bucket holding ten quarts. When taken 

 from the water and examined by the light 

 of a lamp, they were seen to be formed of 

 a gelatinous substance which dried up quick- 

 ly in the air and disappeared, leaving a dark 

 globule a millimetre in diameter (see figure), 

 which could be made lively again, and ca- 

 pable of becoming luminous, by putting a 

 drop of water upon it. When rubbed in 

 the hand, the bodies left a bright train 

 which soon went out, leaving no odor. The 

 globules under the compound microscope 

 were transparent, filled with eggs of an ovoid 

 shape, and were continually agitating their 

 fins and tentacles. The organism is ellipsoid- 



^ 



A Phosphorescent Animalcule of the Milky Sea 

 (natural size). A the dark globule Been in 

 the center of a magnified. 



al and full of eggs, which are contained in 

 an internal sac ; the internal tentacles, t, 

 always in motion, keep the eggs in circula- 

 tion. The exterior tentacles, b, have a 

 motion like that which we make in stretch- 

 ing out the arms, drawing them back and 

 bending the elbows. The object marked n 

 is a comb shaped fin, with twelve or fifteen 

 bones. The epidermis is striated in the 

 direction of the major axis of the ellipse. 

 When kept till daylight and examined in a 

 dark room, the water gave no light ; it was 

 of no use to shake or stir it, the bodies 

 had lost their phosphorescent property. 

 Fresh water, drawn up in the daytime and 

 stirred in the dark, likewise showed no 

 phosphorescence, although the color of the 

 waters, a dirty-blue bordering upon gray, 



indicated that the ship was still close to 

 the milky sea. On the next evening the 

 milky tint came on again, all at once, at 

 about seven o'clock, an hour and twenty 

 minutes after sunset and an hour after 

 dark. The beautiful appearances of the 

 preceding night were again observed, but 

 the whitish reflection in the horizon more 

 resembled a fog which obscured it and made 

 it seem nearer. Drops of water examined 

 by themselves in the microscope revealed 

 filaments of marine plants and numerous 

 proliferous vegetable cells. The animal- 

 cules were the same as before, and were 

 the only luminous objects. The nights of 

 the 9th, 10 th, 12th, and 13th of February 

 were thus adorned with the splendor of the 

 milky sea ; during this time the ship had 

 passed through six hundred and sixty miles, 

 or two hundred and twenty marine leagues, 

 in a mean latitude of 12 north, between 

 the sixty-first and fifty-first meridians of 

 east longitude. The atmosphere was in its 

 normal condition, as was also the sea ; the 

 moon was new, the sky was clear, the ba- 

 rometer and thermometer were steady. No 

 storm was near; no change was observed 

 in the hydrometric condition of the air ; the 

 monsoon had been blowing a light breeze 

 from the northeast for a considerable pe- 

 riod. Several officers on board had previ- 

 ously witnessed this interesting spectacle in 

 different places, as the Gulf of Aden, the 

 Bay of Bengal, the Sea of Java, in hot lati- 

 tudes, and during the months of January 

 and February, but none of them had ob- 

 served it when it was so bright, or had no- 

 ticed it for so long a time. La Nature. 



The Health-Cure as a Remedy for Adver- 

 sity, The "Lancet" suggests that more 

 account ought to be taken than is taken of 

 the condition of health in estimating the 

 causes of success or failure in life. The 

 habit of failing is formed in some families, 

 and seems to be transmitted by inheritance ; 

 the same is the case with constitutional pe- 

 culiarities, and often with certain morbid 

 conditions. It would be an interesting and 

 profitable study to examine how far what is 

 called ill luck or bad fortune is induced by 

 such peculiarities. Accepting this view, 

 " so far from its being strange that fail- 

 ure or success should ' run in families,' it 



