® = On the Phosphorescence of Marine Invertebrata. 199 
Tiedemann, Darwin, H. Davy, Heinrich, Treviranus, Burmeis- 
ter, &c., believe in the secretion of a liquid containing phospho- 
tus, and in the combustion owing to the air introduced by respl- 
Tation 
Macartney and Todd regard phosphorescence as due to the 
hervous fluid concentrated and modified by certain organs, so as 
to appear under the form of light. 
The author next proposes his own theory founded on a sort of 
fusion between the two preceding. With Macartney, he admits 
that phosphorescence is due to an imponderable agent, and com- 
pares it to the production of electricity by certain fishes. But 
considering the well known fact of the luminous traces that cer- 
fain animals leave behind them, he supposes that phosphorus 
oan analogous substance may very well enter into the compo- 
Sion of the organs which produce the light. 
It is plain that Dr. Coldstream, in common with all the authors 
Whom we have cited, believed that phosphorescence should be 
attributed to but one cause. 
This error M. Becquerel* has avoided. After having shown 
that in the Lampyris and other insects, phosphorescence is the re- 
sult of a chemical action at the control of the animal, M. Becquerel 
sates the observations of Khrenberg, and admits with him that 
0 certain inferior animals the production of light is owing to 
a disengagement of electricity. Moreover, he recalls the ob- 
“ervations of MM. Quoy and Gaimard, who had seen. under the 
*quator, near the island of Rawak, small zoophytes, which while 
swimming rapidly, drew after them luminous trains. inally, 
* Becquerel, resting on this fact, and on his own observations 
2 Company with M. Breschet, at Venice, in the waters of 
the Brenta, allows that the phosphorescence of the sea may be 
Wing to an organic substance intimately combined or mingled 
with the water, analogous to that which covers the herring and 
ther fish when they are phosphorescent. ; ; 
» Doctor Coldstream seems not to have known of two memoirs 
Which appeared in Germany, about the same time, and which we 
have Teserved for the close of this history, on account of their pe- 
erat interest ey es au 
“he first of these works is that of M. Ehrenberg, rand it is in- 
- Sontestibly the most complete which has been published on this 
Diack. < To all the facis made known by his predecessors, the 
: ' Traité. de physiq ue pports la chimie i et les sciences 
male. comparée, dans ses rai ayec 
Raturelles, t. ii, 1844, : + Loe. Cit. 
