116 History of Luminescence 



Naturalists and New Luminous Animals 



It is probable that Bartholin's book in its various editions greatly 

 stimulated ^*' the study of luminescence. He is quoted at length in 

 Gammerologia (Frankfurt and Zurich, 1665) , a large monograph 

 on every aspect of crustacean knowledge considered from a " physi- 

 cal, physiological, historical, medical and chemical " point of view, 

 by Philipp Jacob Sachs von Lewenhaimb (1627-1672) , M. D., of 

 Breslau, a member of the Collegium Naturae Curiosorum. One sec- 

 tion dealt with the innate light of Crustacea, repeating Bartholin's 

 account of the river lobsters seen by Leo Allatius, but describing 

 many other luminous invertebrates and discussing particularly 

 whether there was such a thing as inborn light, a point of view 

 denied by the van Helmont school. 



Sachs mentioned practically all the apparent luminescences known 

 at the time, including fireflies, balani or dactyli, oysters, fish, crabs, 

 flesh, eyes, and Hercynian birds. He recognized in connection with 

 the light of oysters that marine rather than fresh-water animals were 

 more apt to luminesce and wondered whether the light might not 

 be connected with saltiness, as held by N. Papin in his treatise in 

 La Mer Liimineuse (1647) . The observation of luminous oysters 

 is an old one, referred to by Licetus in his Litheosphorus (1640) , 

 and some have thought that the word oyster referred to shellfish 

 in general, inchiding Pholas dactylus. However, it is quite clear 

 from Sachs's description, copied from a letter written to Sachs on 

 December 6, 1644, by an eye-witness, Johann Daniel Major (1634- 

 1693) , that the oyster and not Pholas is under discussion. Major, 

 who is described as " the brightest Evening Star of the Collegium 

 Curiosum," 



had sometimes observed in the oysters in Murano near Venice, if they 

 were still alive, juicy, and well-preserved, especially at the time of waxing 

 moon, and were lying in the dark, that at times in one of their shells, 

 where they are widest, a little drop, the size of a small pearl, shone up 

 with a tiny, though readily discernible, light. This light had the color 

 of that on the belly of the glow-worm at the time of the Johannes feast. 

 Oysters handled by human hands sometimes drew back this little drop, 

 which shone by night, through a hidden passage of their shell, but after 

 they were left alone for a while, they brought it back into the open.^'^ 



"Among important naturalists of the seventeenth century, John Ray (1627-1705), 

 J. J. Swammerdam (1637-1680), F. Redi (1626-1698), J. Jonston (1603-1675), R. Plot 

 (1641-1696), P. J. Sachs (1627-1672), and J. D. Major (1634-1693), mention lumi- 

 nous organisms briefly, whereas F. Willoughby (1635-1672) , Martin Lister (1638-1712) , 

 W. Charleton (1619-1707) , and C. Merret (1614-1695) hardly noticed them. 



*' Translated by Mrs. Annemarie Holborn, from Sachs's Gammerologia, p. 210. 



