THE PHOSPHORESCENCE OF THE SEA. 27 
times it appears red. Looking down into the dark depths, fan- 
tastic forms are seen, luminous circles, starry plumes, or lambent 
fringes. A mass of these creatures at a distance looks like a globe 
of red hot metal or fiery bouquets, flinging off sparks or green fes- 
toons, decorating the dark waters with the wreaths of illumination. 
And now, like incandescent meteors, they glide through the waves, 
rising to the surface, diving to the bottom, grouping themselves, 
again to separate as quickly; describing in their flight a thousand 
curves, and now, as if to elude some pursuer, extinguishing their 
light, only again to re-light it, and again to be pursued. 
Spallanzani made numerous experiments upon the light of the 
meduse, particularly the Aurelia phosphorica. Ue found that the ~ 
phosphorescent power lay in their great arms or tentacles, in the 
muscular zone of the body, and in the cavity of the stomach. The 
rest of the body of the animal emitted no light when agitated. 
The source of the phosphorescence resides in a viscous liquid, which 
is secreted and oozes to the surface from these organs. If this 
‘liquid be mixed with other liquids it exhibits its luminosity. 
One single aurelia squeezed in twenty-seven ounces of milk made 
the whole so luminous that a letter could be read by its light at a 
yard’s distance ! 
Pliny observed that the Pholas dactylus, a little bivalve of which 
we shall presently speak, possessed such a phosphorescence that 
the lips of the persons who ate it became luminous. He also 
noticed that this light appeared on the clothes, if any of the liquid 
from the animal fell upon them. 
Réaumur, having experimented some time with a Pholas, 
washed his hands in a basin of water, which, when taken into a 
dark room, exhibited a bluish phosphorescence. Milne Edwards, 
having put some living Pholadide in alcohol, the light-giving fluid 
which oozes from the pores of the body of these mollusks sank to 
the bottom of the glass, and there emitted its light as it would 
have done had it been in contact with the air. 
The greater number of these luminous creatures appear to have 
their phosphorescence at their command, like the glow-worm with 
his tiny lantern, for most of them are able to augment or diminish 
their light according to circumstances, or to extinguish it alto- 
