CHAP. XI. 



LUMINOUS ANIMALS. 



359 



recourse to, in their deservedly popular and interesting 

 volumes. The immortal works of Reaumer and of Huber, 

 indeed, almost take away from subsequent writers the 

 power of giving any original information on a subject 

 they have so fully and so ably investigated. To those, 

 therefore, we must refer the reader who wishes to con- 

 sult original authorities. 



CHAP. XI. 



LUMINOUS ANIMALS. 



(362.) AMONG all the provisions which have been so 

 abundantly made by Providence for the comfort or 

 security of its creatures, none is more singular than the 

 power, which some animals possess, of emitting a phos- 

 phoric light from their own bodies, thus shedding, at 

 will, a radiance through the deepest gloom of the forest, 

 or lighting up the depths of ocean with countless mil- 

 lions of moving atoms, like the spangled vault of 

 heaven on a starlight night. 



(363.) This extraordinary property is chiefly pos- 

 sessed, on the land, by the beetles of the glow-worm 

 family; while that which is the most familiar to us is 

 the Lampyris noctiluca (fig. 86.), or common glow- 

 worm. In Britain, this insect, 

 although not uncommon, is 

 never abundant ; but, in Italy 

 there is another species, (we saw 

 them in the greatest abundance 

 round Genoa,) which, during 

 summer light up the dusky 

 night, decking the earth with 

 thousands of brilliant gems, which sparkle and glisten 

 through the gloom. It was once believed that the fe- 

 A A 4 



