Animal Luminescence 575 



Marine Worms (and Oysters) 



Oysters are not self-luminous organisms. When Kircher ^- (1640, 

 1643) mentioned the light of " rotten oysters," luminous bacteria 

 are suspect, but such an explanation cannot be applied to the obser- 

 vation reported by Philipp Jacob Sachs von Lewenhaimb (1627- 

 1672) , a physician at Breslau, in his Ganifnarologia (1665: Cap. XI. 

 sec. 6, p. 210) . A friend, Johann Daniel Major (1634-1693) , another 

 physician in Hamburg, had sent him a letter, dated December 6, 

 1664, with the following statement: ^^ 



I have several times noticed with respect to oysters that, if still living, 

 juicy and in good condition, they are placed in the darkness, especially 

 when the moon is waxing, then in either shell a droplet of pearl [perla] 

 of rather small size shines about its denser part, radiating with a small 

 but very clear light. The color of the light is the same as that in the 

 belly of glow-worms. . . . 



The explanation of this light was soon given by M. de la Voie, 

 who communicated his observations to M. Adrien Auzout (died 

 1692) , the French mathematician and astronomer and one of the 

 founders of the French Academy, who published in the Journal de 

 Sgavons for April 12, 1666. Auzout did not at first believe that 

 worms which " twinkled like a great star " could occur in oysters so 

 he had more than two dozen opened by candlelight and acttially 

 observed four kinds of worms in them, some of which were lumi- 

 nous. An account of his paper is given in the first volume of the 

 Philosophical Transactions for May 7, 1666, as follows: 



That the two first sorts [of worms] are made of a matter easily re- 

 soluble, the least shaking or touch turning them into a viscous and 

 aqueous matter; which falling from the shell, stuck to the Observers 

 fingers, and shone there for the space of 20 seconds: and if any little part 

 of this matter, by strongly shaking the shell, did fall to the ground, it 

 appear'd like a little piece of a flaming Brimstone, and when shaken off 

 nimbly, it became like a small shining Line, which was dissipated before 

 it came to the ground. . . . 



The form observed was possibly a species of Polycirrus. The 

 author has seen Polycirrus living in oysters from the Jersey coast, 

 just as described above. 



^- Kircher's rotten oysters must be different from the ostracea described as living in 

 day on the ocean floor by N. Zucchi, who mentioned them in Philosophia Optica, 48, 

 1652. According to Ehrenberg (1834:418) the word "ostracea" was used for any 

 shellfish and could have been applied to the rock-boring mollusc, Pholas, a self- 

 luminous organism. 



^^ Quoted from the Rivinus and Boehme thesis (1673) , Sec. 19, translated by R. A. 

 Applegate. 



