Animal Luminescence 595 



Peters (1841) showed that firefly flashing stops when the nerve cord 

 is cut, and Kolliker (1857) said nerves controlled the organ, while 

 M. Verworn (1892) spoke of an automatic nerve center in the 

 oesophagial ganglia of the Italian lucciole. 



The second method of controlling activity in animals, by hor- 

 mones, is also effective in luminescence control. Light production 

 in the photophores of a fish, Porichthys notatus, was found to be set 

 off by injection of a small amount of adrenalin by Greene and 

 Greene in 1924. 



The fact that low temperatures reduce or extinguish biolumines- 

 cences without permanent harm seems to have been first observed 

 by Bacon (1627) who reported that shining wood was not hurt by 

 " laying it abroad in frosty weather." A similar experiment was 

 tried by N. Hulme (1800) , using luminous wood and fish (bacteria) 

 in a freezing mixture, and by Spallanzani (1796) , using the glow- 

 worm. These men found that on rewarming, the light would reap- 

 pear. Extreme low temperatures (liquid hydrogen at — 252°C) 

 were tested on luminous bacteria by A. Macfayden and S. Rowland 

 (1900) and found to be harmless. Luminescence reappeared and 

 growth began on warming to room temperatures and G. Zirpolo 

 (1932) found that no injurious effect resulted from exposure to 

 temperatures of liquid helium (— 271° C) . 



At high temperatures the light of a luminous liquid from the 

 mollusc, Pholas, was observed to disappear by Reaumur (1723) and 

 by Beccari, Monti and Galeati (1724). A. R. Martin (1761, 1764) 

 saw the light of fishes (bacteria) go out at high temperature, but the 

 first to observe reversibility of luminescence after extinction at high 

 temperature was Canton (1769) , also using shining fish. After the 

 light had disappeared on heating, it returned on cooling, a general 

 finding for bioluminescence reactions, now attributed to reversible 

 denaturation of luciferase. 



The first studies of high hydrostatic pressures (600 atmospheres) 

 were made on the glowworm by Dubois and P. Regnard (1884) . 

 Slight injury was observed but no permanent impairment of the 

 lighting ability. Luminous bacteria were tested under pressure by 

 E. Suchland (1898) but no further work appeared until that of 

 Brown, Johnson, and Marsland (1942) , again using luminous bac- 

 teria. These men developed an important theory to explain the 

 action of pressure, temperature, and drugs or chemicals on the 

 luminescence of these organisms and on biological processes in 

 general. 



So many observers have noticed the effect of chemicals or alcohol 

 on luminescence that it is almost impossible to say who was the first 



