THE PHOSPHORESCENCE OE THE SEA. 
281 
Chausey, at Brehat, or wherever else I may have established 
the existence of phosphorescence, I have frequently tried to 
ascertain the cause of those brilliant sparks which shone and 
disappeared again with the rapidity of lightning. In the water 
itself I generally found minute Crustaceans, whilst under the 
stones, and upon the fucus, the luminosity appears to have 
originated in Annelides and Ophiuridse. 
These results suffice to explain all the circumstances attendant 
upon the mode of phosphorescence which we are now considering, 
blatant, or swimming Crustaceans, which lead a wandering life, 
are never found congregated in sufficient numbers upon one 
spot to cause the scintillations of individuals to become fused or 
amalgamated in such a manner as to produce a uniform tint or 
sheet of light. 
The Ophiurkhe and the most minute Annelides, owing to 
their diminutive proportions, are unable to emit an amount of 
luminosity sufficient to become united with that of their neigh- 
bour’s; consequently, we find the fight which these animals 
produce, to be exhibited in points, often very closely approxi- 
mate, but never completely fused together. 
In the intertropical seas, or in the Mediterranean, and occa- 
sionally even on our own shores of the Atlantic Ocean, animals 
of larger proportions, or such as five in colonies, are found 
associated with those just named. These necessarily impart 
greater eclat to the phenomenon, but do not by any means 
change its general character. In this, as in the ordinary cases 
that present themselves on our shores, the partial phospho- 
rescence is due to the presence of animals, and those animals are 
in a living state. 
And now let us inquire, whether the same observations are 
applicable to general or diffused phosphorescence, — to that 
phase which imparts to the water, when agitated, the appear- 
ance of a fused metal bespangled with scintillations of even 
greater brilliancy than the glowing surface ? 
Whoever has merely witnessed the phenomenon would at 
once unhesitatingly proclaim this to be impossible. He sees, 
as it were, a sheet of flame spread out before him, whole waves 
being rendered luminous; and, having steeped his hands in 
the water, he finds, on withdrawing them, that they too are 
washed with fight ! Is it possible, then, to arrive at any other 
conviction than that this magic influence arises from some 
substance which is held in solution by the water ? 
And yet, in every case that I have investigated with the 
strictest scrutiny, I have found it to be otherwise. The most 
elaborate researches, as well as the most homely experiments, 
that I have undertaken, have always satisfied me, beyond a 
doubt, that even this mode of phosphorescence is due to living 
