CHAPTER IV. 



SOME BACTERIAL CURIOSITIES. 



MOST travellers, and some people who 

 stay at home, too, have now and then 

 been mystified and delighted, when not fright- 

 ened, to see in the night-time that wavering, 

 cold, uncanny, but beautiful light, sometimes 

 tinged with the most exquisite green or blue, 

 which is commonly called phosphorescence. 

 Sometimes it is seen in decaying plants or 

 wood ; sometimes bays or inlets of the sea are 

 fairly luminous with it. The surface of dead 

 fish and of meat and various kinds of vegeta- 

 bles often become so bright as to illuminate 

 the storage rooms in which they lie. 



Some time since there was brought to the 

 laboratory for examination a cluster of sausages 

 which had been destined to grace a boarding- 

 house breakfast-table. To the consternation 

 of the maid who went into the dark cellar 



41 



