244 History of Luminescence 



w. c. m'intosh 



In 1885, for the first time, a presidential address of the British 

 Association for the Advancement of Science dealt with luminous 

 animals. This was delivered before the biology section, by Dr. 

 W. C. M'intosh, at the meeting held at Aberdeen in 1885, fifty-four 

 years after the Association was founded in 1831. It was a general 

 survey and mentioned all groups known to be luminous, as well as 

 some whose luminescence was doubtful. M'intosh did not go into 

 the problem of the origin of the light but restricted his subject to 

 biological aspects. The address was printed not only in the report 

 of the British Association for the Advancement of Science but also 

 in Nature (1885) and in the Revue Scientifique of Paris (1885) . 

 M'intosh had always been interested in bioluminescence, having 

 contributed general articles in 1872 and later in 1906. He was a 

 professor of biology at the United College at St. Andrews until his 

 retirement in 1917, the immediate predecessor of D'Arcy Thomp- 

 son. His paper is one of the few from the British Isles in which 

 knowledge of animal light is treated in a general review. 



KRUKENBERG AND DITTRICH 



In Germany two large papers on bioluminescence appeared at 

 about the same time. The first was by C. F. W. Krukenberg (1852- 

 1889) , " Neue Thatsachen fiir eine vergleichende Physiologic des 

 Phosphorescenzerscheinungen bei Tieren und bei Pflanzen," part 

 of his Vergleichende Physiologische Studien, published at Heidel- 

 berg in 1887. Krukenberg reported on bioluminescence in general 

 and also recorded his observations on a pennatulid, Pteroides gri- 

 seum, a fungus, Agaricus olearius, and the phosphorescence of the 

 Red Sea during a trip from Marseilles via Trieste to Suakim and 

 Massua. 



The second German contribution, by Rudolf Dittrich, " Ober das 

 Leuchte der Tiere " in 1888, was a much more general account, 

 listing species, giving the structure of luminous organs, the physio- 

 logical chemistry, the possible use to the animal and other matters 

 of interest. A bibliography of 250 titles accompanied the paper. It 

 was unfortunately published in a rather obscure journal and has 

 not been read by many investigators. No later general account of 

 bioluminescence came from German writers until the next century, 

 when the gap was filled by Hans Molisch's Leuchtenden Pflanzen 

 (1904) , by August Putter's " Leuchtenden Organismen (1905) , and 

 by Ernst Mangold's " Die Production von Licht " (1910) . 



