Luminous Appearance of the Oeean. 



9 



mal, apparently in the full possession oflife ; certainly exercising 

 the important function of apprehension of danger. 



The identity of this ovulum, with the luminous bodies I encoun- 

 tered in the water, appeared probable, from their size, consistency 

 and abounding in the same regions. It was soon after ascertain- 

 ed : for on a night when the sea was somewhat agitated, I observ- 

 ed the same corruscations in the waves breaking on the beach, and 

 succeeded in obtaining several of the illuminating bodies, by the 

 light of their own flashes. They appeared, as I expected, identical. 



When examined by candle-light, to overcome the glare of their 

 brilliancy, and at the same time observe their action more clearly, 

 the power of illumination appeared to reside in a similar focal point 

 to that described as the place of the first phenomena of vivification ; 

 and the flashes which could be procured by irritating the mass with 

 the end of a pencil, diverged from this point in lines similar in mag- 

 nitude and direction, to the large red ones, mentioned in that pro- 

 cess. I regret, that it did not occur to me to electrically insulate 

 one of these bodies, and endeavour to obtain shocks ; but I was too 

 much occupied with the question above stated, to avail myself of 

 the means in my hands, of making some interesting experiments 

 on the theory oflife. 



The existence of those large corruscating bodies in the ocean, 

 has been before recorded, and there is, I believe, a paper on this 

 subject, by Dr, Mitchill, published ten or twelve years ago ; but 

 it is thought some parts of the observations are not on record, and 

 they are now submitted in the hope of being in some small degree 

 useful — or pardoned if superfluous. 



The conclusions I formed on this subject were, that in this h> 

 stance a luminous appearance in the ocean was produced by ma- 

 rine ovula; and by a rule of philosophising, all such appear- 

 ances not proved to proceed from another source, and not inconsis- 

 tant with this cause, are fairly assignable to the same origin. 



Watervliet Arsenal 



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