310 Luminousiiess of the Sea. 



What is the cause of this singular appearance is a question 

 which has been often asked, has been frequently attempted to 

 be solved, and has, till lately, been generally attempted in vain. 

 Formerly it was alleged by some authors (Mayer, &c.), that it 

 was from the solar light, which the sea had absorbed during 

 the day, being given out at night: by others (Bajon and Gentil), 

 that the phenomenon was altogether electrical ; for, said they, 

 it is excited by friction. One set of philosophers asserted 

 that the waters of the sea were possessed, of themselves, of a 

 phosphorescent nature, and that the appearance was purely 

 phosphoric ; and they sat down quite contented with having 

 given it a name, without troubling themselves much about the 

 proper meaning of that name : while another party, again, 

 attributed the phenomenon to the putrefaction of sea water, 

 equally contented with the last-mentioned theorisers, with 

 assigning a cause which satisfied themselves, although it was 

 only in other words confessing to the world their ignorance 

 upon the subject. Nay, though the luminous bodies them- 

 selves had been examined by some naturalists, and their 

 animal nature made obvious to their eyes, assisted by the 

 microscope, the conclusions drawn from the examination 

 were still wrong, and they were styled particles of an oily or 

 bituminous nature, in order to coincide with the preconceived 

 opinions of the observer. It was not indeed till lately that the 

 real cause of this appearance was generally adopted, and that it 

 was acknowledged by most authors that it proceeded from 

 animalcules. This opinion has been slowly and gradually 

 making its way, and, like others of this kind, has, from that 

 very circumstance, only the more surely acquired strength 

 and solidity. Every day's examination of the waters of the 

 ocean establishes it the more, and already various species of 

 these interesting little animals are known to naturalists. 



It were a needless and unprofitable task to attempt to 

 refute the theories of the various authors who have written 

 upon the cause of the luminousness of the sea, some of which 

 I have stated above. It cannot proceed from putrefaction, for 

 we do not find the ocean ever in a putrid state ; and moreover 

 it is now clearly ascertained, that when fishes and other marine 

 animals have fairly commenced the putrefactive process, their 

 luminousness ceases altogether. No attempt has ever been 

 made, I believe, to prove that sea-water contains phosphorus 

 in its composition ; it is therefore needless to refute an opinion 

 which has no foundation. The idea of the sea giving out the 

 light during the night which it had absorbed during the day, 

 is so utterly irreconcilable with the appearance itself, that it 



