The Nineteenth Century 239 



Aqiiapendente and Bartholin's luminous Italian lady, as well as the 

 potatoes that seem to be on fire. The incorrect accounts of luminous 

 birds and flowers are repeated, but a large number of true luminous 

 organisms are described. 



In France, Henri Gadeau de Kerville, an entomologist, published 

 a popular book on Les Animaux et les Vegetaux Lumineux (Paris, 

 1890) with short descriptions of luminous forms and scientific 

 rather than artistic illustrations. The book was translated into 

 German in 1893. It was the outcome of previous study of inverte- 

 brates, especially insects, for de Kerville had published, Les Insects 

 Phosphorescents (Rouen, 1881), with an enlarged edition in 1887. 

 The 1881 edition contained a general bibliography of luminous 

 insects of 346 titles, going back to the earliest times, a really compre- 

 hensive historical list of references. On the other hand Les Animaux 

 et les Vegetaux Lumineux contained references to only five general 

 works-Ehrenberg (1834), Milne-Edwards (1863), Holder (1887), 

 Gadeau de Kerville (1887) and Dittrich 1888. Gadeau de Kerville 

 evidently regarded these five as the best of the period. 



DEEP-SEA EXPLORATION 



The controversy over evolution was a great boon to the study of 

 natural history. Every zoologist and botanist was eager to discover 

 new species of animals and plants. Exploration was stimulated, 

 particularly exploration of the deep sea, which was to reveal the 

 existence of so many remarkable luminous creatures. Despite an 

 occasional find of living zoophytes on a soimding line ** most zoolo- 

 gists doubted the existence of life at great depths. There were no 

 facilities for deep-sea collecting during the voyage of the " Beagle " 

 (1831-1836). The Manx naturalist, Edward Forbes (1815-1854), 

 obtained specimens at 230 fathoms in 1841, but thought 300 fathoms 

 about the limit for life. Little did he realize the vast amount of 

 living material to be later obtained by numerous expeditions of all 

 nations.^^ 



In the meantime the Erebus and Terror (1839-1843) explored 

 the Antarctic under command of Sir James Ross (1800-1862) and 



** Probably the first indication of deep sea life came with the discovery of a pen- 

 natulid, Umbellularia groenlandica, which happened to be a luminous form, caught 

 by the ship " Brittania " when entangled on a sounding line at 236 fathoms off the 

 coast of Greenland in 1753. This specimen, which looks like a crinoid, was described 

 by Ellis in the Phil. Trans. (1754) and later rediscovered by M. Lindahl in 1874 in 

 the Arctic Ocean (see Voyage of the Challenger, Narrative by C. W. Thomson I: 49) , 

 and called Umbellula. Many samples of luminous Umbellula were obtained by the 

 " Challenger." 



*^ A brief but excellent history of oceanographic investigation will be found in 

 J. Murray and J. Hjort, The depths of the ocean, London, 1912. 



