THE GLOWWORMS LIGHT-EMITTING APPARATUS. 315 
commencing with Cascariolo's discovery (260 years ago) of 
luminous sulphuret of barium, and extended to the present 
day with the remarkable result that almost all terrestrial bodies 
(metals excepted) are found to shine in the dark after exposure 
to light, has finally culminated in the doctrine that phos- 
phorescence is due to rapid molecular motion or vibration of 
matter. And the illustration which the practical endeavours 
of modern chemistry presents us in the lime light , as far eclipses 
the “lapis Solaris 33 of the alchemist, as our generalizations of 
the multitudinous phenomena of light surpass the speculations 
of the gold maker. 
Since the theories of oxidation and combustion have pre- 
vailed, great attention has been paid to the phosphorescence 
of decaying vegetable or putrescent animal matter. All such 
instances may be referred to chemical changes consequent on 
decomposition. But the investigation of the property pos- 
sessed by living plants and animals, of emitting light in 
virtue of the special organization and self-regulating vital 
action, belongs to the physiologist. On the general subject of 
phosphorescence we refer our readers to the article of the cele- 
brated French naturalist Quatrefages, published in No. 3 
of our Journal, p. 275. The observations we here record have 
more especial reference to the light- emitting organs of insects, 
and, as the most typical instance in our country, those of the 
glowworm. 
In the first place, we shall give some account of the re- 
searches of Professor Kolliker, of Wurzburg, communicated 
to the scientific society of that city in 1857. 
The male Lampyris splendidula has, on the neutral side of 
the sixth and seventh abdominal segments, two small organs 
situated immediately beneath the transparent chitinous cover- 
ing of the insect. The female has at the same places similar 
but larger organs, which are double under the sixth segment, 
and besides these, four or five pairs of smaller organs, disposed 
laterally, but not quite symmetrically, between the first and 
sixth segments. The light of these is best seen from the 
back of the insect, as they are more deeply lodged in the 
abdomen, and dissected out with more difficulty than the 
organ situated in the middle line of the ventral portion of the 
sixth segment. 
The female Lampyris noctiluca have two large organs on the 
ventral side of the sixth and seventh segments, and two smaller 
ones beneath the tail segment. These latter are found in the 
male. 
We may here remark that Professor KollikeFs statement 
disposes of any doubt as to the male insect possessing light- 
organs, and explains the discrepancy of statement as to the 
vol. v. — no. zx. z 
