THE PHOSPHORESCENCE OF THE SEA. 
Tue Noctiluce are little crystal balls of about the size 
of a pin’s head, which, under the microscope, present the 
appearance here figured. The transparence of its struc- 
g ture permits an easy investigation. 
Not a fibre is to be seen, unless, with 
De Blainville, we consider the trans- 
verse markings of the tail in the light 
of muscular fibres, a supposition 
which is very questionable. In the 
neighborhood of this tail there is 
usually a mass of food, or the indigestible remains of 
food. Not that we are to look for a stomach in this 
animal,—nothing of the kind exists; but in lieu thereof 
we find, as in Infusoria, a number of vacuole, or assim- 
ilating cavities, which appear and disappear, according 
to need, formed out of the contractile substance which 
is seen radiating in filaments all through the substance 
of the animal, and which M. Quatrefages likens to the 
sarcode described by Dujardin. In this curious animal, 
not a trace has been discovered of vessels, nerves, 
senses, or indeed of any “organs” whatever. It is a 
mass of animated jelly, with a mobile tail. Its mode 
of reproduction has been variously expounded, but the 
observations of Quatrefages and Krohn seem placed be- 
yond a doubt by those recorded in Mr. Brightwell’s ` 
paper, proving that they multiply by spontaneous sub- 
division. No one has yet observed anything like repro- 
duction by means of ova. 
To these Noctiluce the sea owes much of that brilliant 
phosphorescence which at all times has been the marvel of 
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