42 History of Luminescence 



poetry. Martialis (a. d. 43-104) , the Latin author of fourteen books 

 of epigrams, refers to a woman named Cleopatra, who shone when 

 immersed in the shining light of sea baths. The translation "^ reads: 

 " New to the marriage-bed, and yet unreconciled to her husband, 

 Cleopatra had plunged into the gleaming pool, seeking to escape 

 embrace. But the wave betrayed the lurking dame: brightly she 

 showed, though covered by the overlapping water. ..." If the 

 plunge was at night into sea water, there can be little doubt that a 

 luminous wave would have revealed her whereabouts. Today, the 

 suits of sea bathers at night become covered with the various species 

 of sparkling dinoflagellates that are mainly responsible for marine 

 luminescence.^^^ 



Neither Athenaeus of Naucratis {ca. a. d. 200) , in whose Deipno- 

 sophistae there are references to fish and also to the luminous mol- 

 lusc, Pholas, as food, nor in Oppian's {ca. 172-210) Haliutica,"« 

 which deals with fishes and fishing, is there any mention of lumines- 

 cence. Perhaps the phenomenon was so common as to be taken for 

 granted. 



It is sometimes said that the words " lampe " and " lamperos," 

 which the Greeks used for sea foam and which in derivation imply 

 a torch, lamp, light, lustre, brilliance, etc., could refer to the lumi- 

 nosity of breaking and foaming waves. Although attractive, this 

 origin seems unlikely. " Lampe " also refers to the scum or coating 

 that gathers on liquors left to stand and probably contrasts the light 

 surface with the dark interior of the liquid. However, we find the 

 word in Lampyris, the glowworm, and Lampadioteuthis, a luminous 

 squid. 



Many other classic derivations appear in the nomenclature of 

 luminescence or of luminous animals— Pyrophorus, fire-bearing, 

 from the Greek " pyr," fire, and " phero," to bear; also horn, the 

 Greek " phos," light, there is phosphor, light giving; from the Latin, 

 " lux, lucis," light, comes lucifer, light bearing. Greeks called the 

 morning star, " Phosphoros," Romans called it " Lucifer." There is 

 satisfaction in the fact that the words " phosphorescence " and " luci- 

 ferin " have such poetic connotations. 



"* Book 4, epigram 22, translated by W. C. A. Ker, 1919. 



11* Ovid's (43 B. c.-A. D. 17) statement in Tristia (Book I, Sec. 8, line 4), " unda 

 dabit flammas, et dabit ignis aquas " (water shall produce flame and flame, water) is 

 merely an example of what might happen if nature's laws were reversed. 



ii« Oppian's Haliuticks. Of the nature of fishes and fishing of the ancients in five 

 books. Trans, from the Greek by John Jones, 232, Oxford, 1722, contains a list of 

 fishes known to Oppian. 



