592 History of Luminescence 



bacteria are not extruded but remain in place in elongate cells 

 richly supplied with blood vessels. Although the fish have been 

 known since the observations of Peter Boddaert in 1781, the first 

 suggestion that the peculiar eye structure was luminous was made 

 by A. Giinther (1887) , and the light was later observed by A. G. 

 Vordermann in 1900, without knowing that bacteria were present. 



Summary 



It is apparent that the study of light production by animals and 

 plants has been approached from many different points of view. 

 The chemistry of light production, the physical nature of the light 

 and more biological aspects, such as physiology, the structure and 

 development of the luminous organ, the habits of the animal, and 

 the purpose of luminescence have all received their share of atten- 

 tion. It would be satisfying if a clear-cut statement could be made 

 that a certain worker first discovered this or that important fact 

 concerning bioluminescence. Apart from the hazard confronting an 

 historian, who may overlook some important paper, it is not always 

 certain that one man alone made the discovery. A few firsts do stand 

 out, and in this summary the attempt will be made to list some of 

 the important steps in knowledge of light production by living 

 things. Reference to twentieth-century papers will be found in E. N. 

 Harvey (1952). 



There is little doubt that Boyle (1668) in 1667, using his air pump, 

 was the first to show the necessity of air for luminescence of wood 

 (fungi) and dead fish (bacteria) , although oxygen was not recog- 

 nized at that time. A second demonstration is due to Beccari, 

 Galeati, and Monti (1724) who observed that the light of a lumi- 

 nous liquid from the mollusc, Pholas, would disappear when evacu- 

 ated with an air pump and also if kept in a stoppered bottle, unless 

 bubbles of air were present. Spallanzani (1796) likewise demon- 

 strated that the glowworm only lighted in air or oxygen, not in 

 non-respirable gases. Bioluminescences which can appear in absence 

 of dissolved oxygen, for example the jellyfish, Pelagia, were demon- 

 strated by E. N. Harvey (1926) , while the first use of a luminous 

 organism (bacteria) to detect small amounts of oxygen was made 

 by M. W. Beijerinck (1889) , who was responsible for initiating 

 (1889-1891) the many metabolic studies which have been made on 

 luminous bacteria. He also studied their mutation (1889, 1900, 

 1912). 



The discovery that luminous tissue can be dried and will give 

 light on moistening must be attributed to Reaumur (1723) and to 



