314 
THE OCEAN WORLD. 
behold certain animals which oat separately, but which fulfill togetb c ' r 
as a community very singular functions — a kind of union and coni' 
munism of which the moral world presents no prototype. Wi^ 
our molluscs, in place of two individuals united, we have a score. ^ e 
may consider the entire star as one single animal with many mouths- 
But then, we have with it a luxury of organs for the function of 1,r 
telligence which seeks and chooses, and parsimony of the organ 0 
stupidity, which neither seeks nor chooses.” 
While the Botrylla is fixed and adherent, the Pyrosoma, on tb e 
contrary, is perfectly free. The animal colony which constitutes h 
floats and balances itself upon the waters, like the sea-pen or the 
physalia, of which we have spoken in treating of the zoophytes. 
The name Pyrosoma has been given to these animals in consequent 
of their brilliant phosphorescent properties. According to the obserW' 
tions of Peron and Lesueur, nothing can exceed the brilliant 
dazzling light emitted in the bosom of the ocean by these animal 8 ' 
Prom the manner in which the colonists dispose themselves, they 
form occasionally long trains of fire ; but it is a singular fact that 
this phosphorescence presents the same curious characteristics that 
distinguish the oils of the Beroe ; namely, that the colours var/ 
instantaneously, passing with wonderful rapidity from the most in- 
tense red to yellow, from golden colour to orange, to green, or t° 
azure blue. De Humboldt saw a flock of these brilliant living colon 168 
floating by the side of his ship, and projecting circles of light bavin# 
a radius of not less than twenty inches in diameter. He could see 
by this light the fishes which followed the ship’s track, during man/ 
days, at the depth of from two to three fathoms. 
Bibra, a Brazilian navigator, having caught six Pyrosoma, employ^ 
them to light up his cabin. The light produced by these little cD a 
tures was so bright, that he could read to one of his friends fh e 
description he had written of these his living torches. 
Three species of Pyrosoma are known ; namely, P. elegans, two ° r 
three inches in length, which inhabits the Mediterranean ; P. gigaw^’ 
which is found in the same sea. It is a long bluish cylinder, bristlm# 
with tubercles, each of which is the abode of an animal, a citizen 0 
this moving republic, and is attached to its colleagues by means of h s 
gelatinous envelope : an alliance imposed by inexorable Nature ^ 8 
forced species of socialism. 
