128 PHOSPHORESCENCE OF 



white heat. When one of these worms was trodden 

 upon and crushed, the phosphorescence spread 

 out upon the ground, producing a long train of 

 light, as if the earth in this place had been streaked 

 with a piece of phosphorus. 



Each of these Lumbrics was remarked by their 

 observers to have a well-developed clitellum, which 

 proves that the worms under inspection were adults 

 and that it was their period for coupling. M. 

 Moquin-Tandon preserved some of these worms 

 for many days, and observed that their luminous 

 property resided in the sexual swelling or clitellum, 

 and that their phosphorescence ceased immediately 

 after copulation. 



The editor of a French periodical,* in which my 

 brochure on Phosphorescence was reprinted with- 

 out my consent soon after it appeared in France, 

 received shortly afterwards a letter, dated 18th 

 November, 1858, and signed M. Adrien, of Pont 

 Saint-Esprit, in which the writer declares that, 

 having read my papers, the paragraphs which 

 treat of the phosphorescence of Lumbrics had re- 

 minded him of an observation he had made about 

 three years ago. 



" One summer's night after a rainy day," says 



the writer, "I saw the ground sparkling with a 



whitish phosphoric light whilst sprinkled with 



warm urine, and I recognized at the same time 



* ' L'Ami des Sciences.' Paris, 1858. 



