340 OTsSERTATlONS ON 3LUMIN0US ANIMALS. 



body shone at every part, but most brilliantly at' the ge- 

 nital organs*. 



Notwithstanding this concarrence of testimony, it is 

 next to impossible, that animals, so frequently before our 

 eyes as the common earthworm, should be endowed with 

 so remarkable a property, without erery person haTing 

 observed it. If they only enjoyed it during the season for 

 copulation, still it coutd not hare escaped notice, as these 

 creatures are usually found joined together in the most fre- 

 quented paths, and in garden walks. 

 Ehe water fl-ea; In diiferent systems of natural history, the property of 

 shining is attributed to the cancer pulex. The authorities 

 for this opinion are Hablitzl, and Thules and Bernard. The 

 former observed upon one occasion a cable that was drawn 

 np from the sea exhibit light, which upon closer inspection 

 was perceived to be covered by these insects +. Thules and 

 Bernard reported, that they met with a number of this 

 species of cancer on the borders of a river entirely indii- 

 BOUS+. I am nevertheless disposed to question the lumi- 

 nous property of the cancer pulex, as I have often had the 

 animal in my posjscssion, and never perceived it emit any 

 light. 

 ffnd thd scolo- The account given by Linneus of the scolopendra phos- 

 yenrfraphos- phorca is so improbable and inconsistent, that one might 

 be led to doubt this insect's existence, particularly as it 

 does not appear to have been ever seen, except by Ekeberg, 

 the captain of an East ladiaman, from whom Linneus learnt 

 its history. 



I now proceed to the description of those luminous ani- 



Hials, that have been discovered by the Right Honourable 



Sir Joseph Banks, Captain Horsbnrg, and myselfi f 



Two riimlnwis On the passage from Madeira to Rio de Janeiro, the sea 



marine animals ^gg observed by Sir Joseph Banks to be unusually luminous. 



di,covered by „ ,. . ■ ,,.,,.,,. tt i- , 



Sir J.Bank«. flashing »n many parts like lightning. He directed some of 

 the water to be hauled up, in which he discovered two kinds 

 of animals, that occasioi^d the phenomenon ; the am^ a 



, ' ■■ ■ ^ • ■ i- ()' ;■ i"" 



* Jouraal de Physique, Tome XVI. 

 ■f Hablitzl ap. Pall. n. Nord. Beytr. 4, p. 396. 

 » i.Journal de Physique, Tome.XXVIIi. , , ,r , , , 



crustaceou* 



