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CHAPTER VI. 



PROBLEMATICAL CASES OF PHOSPHORESCENCE 

 IN STJPEKIOK ANIMALS, AND PHOSPHOBIC PHE- 

 NOMENA OBSERVED IN MAN. 



IN the animal kingdom phosphorescence appears 

 to cease with the class of insects ; in reality,, how- 

 ever, phosphoric phenomena have been observed 

 in animals of superior organization during their 

 lifetime. 



To speak, in the first place, of some proble- 

 matical cases of phosphorescence in animals more 

 highly organized than insects, I will state that, 

 according to Carus, we are wrong in attributing 

 to a simple effect of reflected light that peculiar 

 scintillation which is observed in the eyes of dogs, 

 cats, tigers, etc. Rennger, in his ' Natural His- 

 tory of the Mammalia of Paraguay ' (' Naturge- 

 schichte der Saugthiere von Paraguay'), published 

 at Basle in 1830, says, that he has seen the eyes of 

 a monkey so brilliant in complete darkness, that 

 they illuminated objects at a distance of half a 

 foot. The animal in question is the Nyctipithecus 



