104 ® n ^ e Luminous Appearand of the Sea. 



The celebrated Forfkal, who accompanied Niebuhr as na* 

 turalift in his travels through Arabia, having caught a great 

 number of marine animals, among which there were dif- 

 ferent kinds of medufa, put fome of them into a bucket full 

 of water. After keeping them fome time, he threw the con- 

 tents of the bucket from a window, in the dark, and obferved 

 that all thofe places where the water fell feemed to be co- 

 vered with fparks of fire. Pie made feveral experiments on 

 this fubject, all of which convinced him that the luminous 

 appearance of the fea arifes from infefts. Bartholinus alfo, 

 and Donati, afcribe the luminous appearance of the fea to 

 marine worms {fnoh/f.a:). 



Silberfchlag afcribes the luminous appearance of fea water 

 to phofphorus, the component parts of which may exift iii 

 the fea as well as in the atmofphere. It is not improbable 

 that feveral kinds of worms, which, according to various 

 obfervations, have been considered as luminous, may be in- 

 debted for that property to marine phofphorus adhering to 

 them. It has been found, by repeated obfervations, that the 

 water of the fea, even at the depth of forty feet, is phofpho- 

 refcent ; and the abbe Spallanzani is therefore inclined to 

 believe that this is ths cafe alfo at every depth. Refpeding 

 the luminous appearance of the fea water, however, he gives 

 no decifive opinion, and confidcrs every thing hitherto faid 

 on the fubjecl as mere conjectures. 



Mr. Erich Schytte remarks, that when fea water is con- 

 verted into ice it retains its luminous property; and that, 

 when fea water is diftilled, the luminous matter does ntrt; 

 pafs over, but remains behind in the (till. 



Profeffor J. Mayer, in a paper published in the Trans- 

 actions of the Roval Bohemian Society on the luminous 

 appearance of the Adriatic, fays, that the water at the furface 

 feems to imbibe the rays of light in the fame manner as a 

 light magnet. This luminous appearance is obferved more 

 at the furface than at anv depth in the water, and difappears- 

 when, by violent agitation of the waves, the water at the fur- 

 face becomes mixed with that below. This author, however, 

 is of opinion, that there are in the water foreign particles 

 which emit a ftronger light, and which may be feparated 

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