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OBSERVATIONS ON SOME MOLLUSC A AND ZOOPHYTES, RE- 

 GARDED AS THE CAUSES OF THE PHOSPHORESCENCE OF 



THE SEA. 



[Translated from "Freycinet's Voyage autour du Monde."'] 



It is in places where the phenomena which assist in their 

 production are constantly renewed, where floods of light and 

 heat penetrate and warm the water, where electricity seems 

 profusely diffused through every substance, — that myriads of 

 animalculse are, as it were, spontaneously produced. When 

 a perfect calm succeeds to the light breezes which agitate the 

 surface of the sea, it seems as if a magic wand animated the 

 bosom of the waters, and that their constituent principles had 

 assembled and joined together to produce life. 



We have often contemplated this spectacle ; it broke the 

 monotony of calms, and diminished the ennui of long voyages. 

 But no one is ignorant, that it is necessary to be initiated in 

 the study of the secrets of Nature in order to appreciate her 

 wonders j for these seas, so full of life to the observer, are 

 inanimate and devoid of interest to the generality of men, who 

 only regard the more striking objects. 



It is chiefly in straits near the land, and in rather shallow 

 places, 1 that the animalculae are produced in the greatest num- 

 bers. In the Molluccas, for instance, one need only draw up a 

 little water in a bucket in order to procure several varieties of 

 them. Some are long and cylindrical ; others circular and flat- 

 tened. The greatest number are of a round form; these 

 swim and twirl about with much activity, while those seem to 

 consist simply of an immovable gelatinous mass. Sometimes 

 the sea was covered with fibres, with minute filaments, or rather 

 with a kind of dust apparently inanimate, but probably an 

 organized body. It is difficult to form a conception of this 

 productiveness ; it equals if it does not exceed that which is 

 going on upon earth. 



Phosphorescence is a phenomenon which, although attached 

 to many different animals, belongs peculiarly to the marine 

 mollusca: — about this, much has been written, and it still 

 leaves a vast field for conjecture ; since, as regards the manner 

 in which it is effected, every thing remains to be discovered. 



Truly we may say, that we have observed this singular 

 spectacle under all meridians, since we have passed under all; 

 we have even beheld results, which no one has mentioned ; 

 and yet we must confess that we are not more advanced 

 in a knowledge of the principle which produces phospho- 

 rescence than when we began to examine it ten years ago. 

 Therefore, without aspiring to the honour of starting an hypo- 



