Shining Fish, Flesh, and Wood 499 



in 1876 with his Etudes siir la Biere, completely supported the im- 

 portance of microorganisms in fermentation processes. ^^ Neverthe- 

 less, Liebig clung to his original thesis of vibrating molecules as 

 late as 1869. No one had succeeded in extracting anything from 

 yeast which would convert sugar to alcohol in solution, and the 

 whole problem of organized and unorganized ferments was not re- 

 solved until Eduard Buchner (1860-1917) prepared zymase from 

 yeast in 1897. 



The above dates are of special interest for the history of bacterial 

 and fungal luminescence. We shall see that in the years 1823 and 

 1853, clear proof was advanced in support of the view that the light 

 of luminous wood and of luminous flesh, respectively, came from 

 microorganisms. When it is recalled that belief in spontaneous 

 generation was laid to rest only after the concerted efforts of Pasteur 

 in 1860-1861 and of Tyndall in 1876-1877, and that the bacterial 

 origin of disease was not generally accepted until the work of Pasteur 

 and Koch in the late eighteen seventies, recognition that lumines- 

 cence could come from microorganisms was in advance rather than 

 behind the general knowledge of the time. Realization that the 

 diffuse light of the sea was due to microscopic flagellates also came 

 in the years, 1821 to 1834, although luminous macroscopic forms 

 had been known for some time. 



The Light of Wood a Fungus Growth 



After the publication of Heinrich's book (1815) , a lull of nearly 

 a decade occurred in the careful study of luminous wood and nearly 

 four decades in the study of luminous flesh before the true origin 

 of the luminescence became apparent. Discovery in the case of wood 

 came from an observation of the director of mines (Bergrath) in 

 Bochum, a man named Derschau, who had written a letter describ- 

 ing bright luminescence of the wooden supports and beams of coal 

 mines, so bright in fact that lamps were unnecessary. Although 

 his companions ascribed the light to the rotten part of the wood 

 itself, Derschau noticed that the light came only from lines and 

 streaks ^^ in the wood, that could be torn away by the hand, i. e., 

 from the structures growing in the wood called Rhizomorphs, de- 

 scribed in a previous section. Derschau's letter was included in a 

 paper in Flora by T. F. L. Nees von Esenbeck (1823), who an- 

 nounced the finding to the scientific world. 



" M. Traube also held fermentation to be due to living organisms, in Theorie der 

 Fermentwirkung, Berlin, 1858. 



*^ Note the previous (in section on " Luminous Mushrooms and Rhizomorphs ") 

 observation of Freyesleben in 1796, that rhizomorphs on wood are luminous. 



