The Seventeenth Century 127 



ones ... we have for curiosity sake, with this Spirit, preserv'd from 

 further stinking, a portion of Fish, so stale, that it shin'd very vividly in 

 the dark. 



It is unfortunate that alcohol did not also preserve the luminescence 

 of the fish. 



Boyle's studies on shining fish and shining wood placed in a 

 vacuum may be considered the first important experiments on the 

 chemistry of a bioluminescence. 



His second major contribution to knowledge of luminescence was 

 the preparation of phosphorus independently of Brandt, and his 

 continued study of the properties of this element. This work, de- 

 scribed in Chapter XIII, occupied much of his time in later years, 

 and led to publication of The Aerial Noctiluca (1680) and The Icy 

 Noctiluca (1681). 



Boyle lived most of his life too far from the seashore for direct 

 experimentation, but his interest in and ideas on phosphorescence 

 of the sea are expressed in the following quotation: 



When I remember how many questions I have asked navigators about 

 the luminousness of the sea; and how in some places the sea is wont 

 to shine in the night as far as the eye can reach; at other times and 

 places, only when the waves dash against the vessel, or the oars strike 

 and cleave the water; how some seas shine often, and others have not 

 been observed to shine; how in some places the sea has been taken 

 notice of, to shine when such and such winds blow, whereas in other 

 seas the observation holds not; and in the same tract of sea, within a 

 narrow compass, one part of the water will be luminous, whilst the 

 other shines not at all: when, I say, I remember how many of these odd 

 phaenomena, belonging to those great masses of liquor, I have been told 

 of by very credible eye-witnesses, I am tempted to suspect, that some 

 cosmical law or custom of the terrestrial globe, or, at least, of the 

 planetary vortex, may have a considerable agency in the production 

 of these efEects.*^ 



Surely the guiding spirit of so versatile a genius can best be 

 expressed by quoting *^ a reflection of this great investigator, " For 

 sometimes I think a naturalist's pen ought to be like a merchant 

 ship, that comes from time to time into port to rest, but not always 

 to stay there, but to take in new ladings, and refit itself for a new 

 voyage to the same or other parts." 



Robert Hooke 



Next to Boyle, Robert Hooke (1635-1702) probably referred to 

 luminescences more often than any of the other philosophers of his 



♦« Works of Boyle, by T. Birch, 1st ed., 3: 91, 1744; 2nd ed., 4: 381, 1772. 

 *»/cy noctiluca, 88, 1681. 



