194 On the Phosphorescence of Marine Inveriebrata. 
cially of whales and seals, which abound in oily matters.” Bory 
de St. Vincent, Oken, and others have adopted the same view. 
There is certainly great appearance of probability in this expla- 
ation, it is sustained by well known facts and sufficiently ac- 
‘ counts for certain circumstances of the phenomenon. Still in 
many cases it is scarcely better founded than the preceding. The 
same appears to have been the opinion of Newland, and of those 
who like him have attributed phosphorescence to the spawn of 
fishes. ji 
But, since the beginning of the last century, careful observa- 
tions have been made; and various observers have found that a 
scribed in a work on the subject, fourteen species of phosphor- 
escent animals.* ; 
_ Many travellers have noticed the phosphorescent properties of 
the Meduse. Spallanzani, by diffusing in milk the mucus from 
their bodies, rendered the liquid luminous.+ Vianelli attributed 
the phosphorescence of the sea to a Nereis; Shaw, to certal 
flexible zoophytes, &c. , 
French naturalists have not been behind in this movement. 
In 1764, Rigaut discovered and described in an unmistakable 
manner the Noctiluca of Suriray; it is to them that he attributes 
the phosphorescence of the British Channel and Atlantic Ocea®- 
The Abbé Dicquemare, by researches in the harbor of Havre 
confirmed the first results, which, forgotten for a time, were 
corroborated by the labors of Suriray at the same locality. *0° 
learned hydrographical engineer, M. de Tessan, rediscovered the 
Noctiluce, cr animals very similar, in the seas of the Cape ® 
Good Hope, at. False Bay.t M. Rang mentions theit presence 
on the coast of Algiers. More recently M. Verhaeghe has been 
led by his investigations at Ostend|| to the same conclusions & 
Dicquemare and Suriray. . 2 Wake 
_ The assertion of Rigaut was manifestly exaggerated ; the od 
tilucze are not alone in producing this pheriomenon. ‘The lumi 
ous properties of various Meduse have been established beyon 
doubt by the testimony of Peron, Macartney, Tilesius, ee 
Forskal, Humboldt, Ehrenberg, Rathke, ete. Peron and ne 
sueur, Humboldt and others after them, have described with 
* Phosphorescencia maris quatuordecim lucescentium animaleuloram ng ee" 
bus illustrata. Genuze, 1807. + Voyage en Sicile. Avago. 
omptes Rendus de I’ Académie des Sciences, 1840. Rapport fait par M. 
Cited from Gervais, by M. Van Beneden. | aa Recher: 
Report of M. Van Beneden on the menoir of Dr. Verhaeghe, emitled, a3 
ches sur la cause de la Ebsaphiotescents de Ja mer dans Jes parages d’Ostende ‘ 
letin de Académie royale Belgique, t. xiii, Part ii, p. 8, 1846.) . 
te ee 
