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XXXIV. — On the Luminosity of the Sea. 



By John Murray, Esq. Lecturer on Chemistry, &c. 



(Read %9th December 1819. J 



A t an early period, the phenomenon of luminous 

 animals arrested the attention of naturalists ; and 

 among these observers, we find Linnaeus and Pliny. 

 Not confined to the Lampyris, it is clearly ascer- 

 tained, that the property of emitting light obtains 

 in other animals, as the Scolopendra electrica, 

 Fulgora lanternaria, and others. 



The phosphorescence exhibited by vegetable and 

 animal matter in their decomposition, and that 

 of some gems and minerals, by exposure to light and 

 heat, should be ever carefully discriminated from 

 the luminous vestiture of living beings ; and which 

 appears to me to have but a slight analogy with the 

 former. 



