226 History of Luminescence 



" glimworm," the elaterid beetle, Pyrophorus, the lantern fly, Ful- 

 gora laternaria, Pyrosoma, Physalia, and Noctiluca, the latter as 

 depicted by Quatrefages in 1850. 



Jean Louis Armand de Quatrefages (1810-1892) was a man of 

 extraordinarily wide interests in the field of natural history. A pro- 

 fessor of anatomy and ethnology in the Natural History Museum 

 at Paris, he is perhaps best known as an anthropologist for his 

 studies on the origin of man. Nevertheless, much of his earlier work 

 had to do with invertebrates, a great deal of which dealt with lumi- 

 nous forms. In 1850 he published a comprehensive monograph on 

 Noctiluca and also a general paper of forty-five pages, Memoire sur 

 la Phosphorescence de Qiielques Invertebres Marins, which considers 

 not only the mechanism but also the history of bioluminescence. 

 This paper was translated in the American Journal of Science for 

 1853 and later (1862) as a more popular version, " The Phosphores- 

 cence of the Sea," in the Popular Science Review. 



Quatrefages mentioned the observations of his predecessors in the 

 field and then listed the known luminous animals of his time, with 

 additional ones from his own experience. He believed that the 

 work of Matteucci (1847) and others indicated that firefly light was 

 due to a slow combustion of oxidizable material, but raised the 

 question as to whether this view could be applied to " invertebrated 

 animals living in water." 



Quatrefages quoted-^ Ehrenberg (1834) as declaring all light of 

 the sea to be due to organized beings and mentioned also the vari- 

 ous theories itemized by Dr. Coldstream in 1847. He, himself, was 

 inclined to believe, 



that under the general name of phosphorescence, phenomena essentially 

 distinct have been confounded, and which have really nothing in com- 

 mon but the production of light. . . . Without speaking of the phos- 

 phorescence arising from animal decomposition nor that which results 

 from mucus in a state of solution, I believe that light is produced in 

 animals in two ways: 



1st by the secretion of a peculiar substance exuding either from the 

 entire body, or from a special organ. It is probable that in this first mode 

 of phosphorescence, the light always arises from a slow combustion. . . . 



2nd by a vital action whence results the production of a pure light 

 independent of all material secretion. 



Quatrefages went on to say that he agreed mostly with Ehrenberg's 

 (1834) views but did not believe that the luminescence was always 

 connected with reproductive activity. He also pointed out that 

 although some animals appear to have definite luminous organs, 



"Quotations from Quatrefages (1853), p. 202. 



