XXXIV 

 ON THE STRUCTURE OF NOCTILUCA MILIARIS 

 Quart. Journ. Microsc. Sci., vol. iii., 1855,//. 49-54 



Among the many striking and beautiful appearances presented 

 by the Ocean, there is none, perhaps, which has more attracted 

 the attention both of the naturaHst and of the casual observer, than 

 the silvery, sparkling, phosphorescent light, which may often be 

 3een on dark nights, illuminating the track of every boat and 

 defining the contours of the waves as they break upon the shore. 



After long serving as a fertile subject of doubt and discussion, it 

 IS now well known that this luminosity proceeds from many sources ; 

 in the main, from living invertebrate animals — Protozoa, Polypes, 

 Medusae, Annelids, Crustaceans, &c. Among these again, the chief 

 and most important part is played, as was first shown in the middle 

 ■of the last century by M. Rigaut, and again in 1810 by M. Suriray,^ 

 by a singular and anomalous creature of very simple organization, the 

 JSToctiluca miliaris. 



According to M. Suriray the Noctiluca is a spherical gelatinous 

 mass, provided vvith a long filiform tentacle or appendage, presenting 

 a mouth, an oesophagus, one or many stomachs and ramified ovaries, 

 and thus possessing a certain complexity of organization. De Blain- 

 ville confirmed Suriray's account, and placed Noctiluca, without 

 doubt most erroneously, among the Diphydse. On the other hand. 

 Van Beneden Verhaeghe and Doyere, denying the relation of 

 Noctiluca with the Acalephae — and conceiving its organization to 

 be of a much more elementary character — relegated it to the 

 Rhizopoda. 



■^ See Qitatrefages , I. c. I regret that I have not access at this moment to M. Suriray's paper. 



