118 ANIMAL AND VEGETABLE PHOSPHORI. 



times red and sometimes yellow ; and when he drew up the water 

 in those places, it was always viscous and glutinous. The sailors 

 told him, that it was the spawn of whales: that there are great 

 quantities of it in the north, and that sometimes, in the night, they 

 appeared ull over of a bright light, without beiug put in motion 

 by any vessel or fish passing by them. 



As> a confirmation of this conjecture, that the more glutinous 

 the sea water is, the more it is disposed to become luminous, he 

 observes, that one day they took a fish that was called a bonite, 

 the inside of the mouth of which was so luminous, that, without 

 any other light, he could read the same characters which he had 

 before read by the light in the wake of the ship ; and the mouth 

 of this fish was full of a viscous matter, which, when it was rubb- 

 ed upon a piece of wood, made it immediately all over luminous ; 

 though, when the moisture was dried up, the light was extin. 

 guished. 



The abbe Nollet was much struck with the luminousness of the 

 sea when he was at Venice in 1749 ; and after taking a great deal 

 of pains to ascertain the circumstances of it, concluded that it was 

 occasioned by a shining insect; and having examined the water 

 very often, he at length did find a small insect, which he particu- 

 larly describes, and to which he attributes the light. The same 

 hypothesis had also occurred to M.Vianelli, professor of medicine 

 in Chioggia, near Venice; and both he and M. Grizellini, a phy. 

 sician in Venice, have given drawings of the insects from which 

 they imagined this light to proceed. 



The abbe was the more confirmed in this hypothesis, by observ- 

 ing, some time after, the motion of some luminous particles in the 

 sea. For, going into the water, and keeping his head just above 

 the surface, he saw them dart from the bottom, which was covered 

 with weeds, to the top, in a manner which he thought very much 

 resembled the motions of insects ; though, when he endeavoured 

 to catch them, he only found some luminous spots upon his hand- 

 kerchief, which were enlarged when he pressed them with hit 

 finger. 



M. Le Roi, making a voyage on the Mediterranean, presently 

 after the abbe Nollet made his observations at Venice, took no. 

 tice, that in the day-time the prow of the ship in motion threw 

 up many small particles, which, falling upon the water, rolled 

 upon the surface of the sea for a few seconds before they mixed 



