94 HISTOllY OF BRITISH ZOOPHYTES. 



passage I extract from another paper by the same author, 

 in the 'Annals of Natural History/ "Numerous friends 

 can bear witness to the exceeding brilliancy of the phosphor- 

 escent light emitted by a great variety of species, which I 

 was frequently in the habit of exhibiting to them. Once a 

 week I received from the master of a trawling- vessel on the 

 Dublin coast, a large hamper of zoophytes in a recent state ; 

 in the evening these were taken into a darkened room, and 

 the spectators assembled ; I then used to gather up with 

 my hands as much of the contents of the hamper as I could 

 manage, and tossing them about in all directions, thousands 

 of little stars shone out brightly from the obscurity, exhibiting 

 a spectacle, the beauty of which to be appreciated must be 

 seen, and one which it has been the lot of but few persons 

 yet to look upon. Entangled among the corallines were 

 also numerous minute luminous annelides, which added 

 their tiny fires to the general exhibition/' 



Without knowing that Mr. Hassall had written on the 

 subject, I sent a paper to the 'Annals of Natural History ' 

 about the same time, detailing some observations I had 

 made, though I afterwards found that this phosphorescence 

 of zoophytes was known to many more than either Mr. 

 Hassall or I was aware of. Dr. John Fleming knew it. 



