Category: Science - Biology
Among the many revelations of modern science, none have a more absorbing interest than those relating to the illumination of the deep sea. Until within a few years the ocean has been a sealed book. The surface forms only were known; and it was assumed that, owing to the enormo...
Among the many revelations of modern science, none have a more absorbing interest than those relating to the illumination of the deep sea. Until within a few years the ocean has...
2. CHAPTER II.The sea-jellies are among the commonest forms of the seashore. In the summer months the silvery sands are strewn with their glassy disks; unattractive then, but, once launched a...
3. CHAPTER III.We have examined and admired the movable and the moving luminaries of the ocean world, in the firmament of the deep, we may call it,--slowly moving stars of extreme minuteness,...
4. did. But a few years before that, scientists in Europe were quarrellingover the question, Is it a vegetable, or an animal? Dr. Marsigli, a nobleman, asserted that such were vegetable, with further seeming good argument that the creatures looked lik...
5. CHAPTER IV.In the fourth grand branch of the animal kingdom, numerous creations are known which exhibit luminosity. The Echinoderms, as they are termed, are not well known to those who are...
6. CHAPTER V.In wandering through the fields in early morning, we often see little heaps of newly disturbed earth, and occasionally catch glimpses of reddish or pink bodies quickly withdrawi...
7. CHAPTER VI.In all the forms previously mentioned, the phosphorescence is conspicuous; but in the little bivalve Pholas it is almost hidden. The shells of the family _Pholadidæ_ are noted f...
8. CHAPTER VII.Gen. Count Dejean, aide-de-camp to Napoleon, was a most enthusiastic collector of beetles; and it is even said of him that he would march his army out of its way to pass through...
9. CHAPTER VIII.Some years ago an American gentleman, visiting in one of the large cities of South America, was invited to a masquerade ball at one of the finest private residences in the city....
10. CHAPTER IX.When Sir Charles Lyell visited this country some years ago, he expressed much interest in the sea-serpent question; and one of his first inquiries, when introduced to a certain...
11. CHAPTER X.In drifting over the calm waters of the ocean as night comes on, we notice in the depths below luminous forms of infinite variety. These are _medusæ_, as we have seen, moving he...
12. CHAPTER XI.In the summer months in tropical and semi-tropical waters, often during several days in succession, the ocean presents a surface almost unruffled. The fin of some roving shark,...
13. CHAPTER XII.If it were possible for human beings to penetrate to the abyssal depths of the ocean, finny torch-bearers would be found from the very surface to nearly four miles beneath it; e...
14. CHAPTER XIII.On calm nights the splash of the oars and the fall of spray from the bow of the boat startle many fishes resting at or near the surface, which dart away like comets, leaving a b...
15. CHAPTER XIV.In floating over the great coral reef of the Florida peninsula one day, the boat startled a number of large cranes which were standing upon a small key; and, as they laboriously...
16. CHAPTER XV.It is well known that human beings under certain physical conditions become luminous. In some cases among the ignorant great excitement has been occasioned, and the victim avoid...
17. CHAPTER XVI.Among the earliest observers of phosphorescent flowers may be mentioned a young Swedish girl, the daughter of Linnæus, the eminent naturalist. While walking in the garden one su...
18. CHAPTER XVII.One of the most remarkable and awe-inspiring phenomena of the ocean is the water-spout,--a lofty column composed of tons of water, whirling upward, lifted by the mighty force of...
19. CHAPTER XVIII.Phosphorescent light plays an important part in the composition of ghosts and phantoms; and the number of persons who believe that certain phenomena exist which cannot be explai...
20. CHAPTER XIX.In many old works, accounts are found of so-called showers of fire, during which the entire heavens seemed filled with gleaming drops, that threatened to burn every living thing...
21. CHAPTER XX.As to the value and use of the gift of luminosity possessed by various animals, we can only surmise. Many interesting theories have been suggested, none of which, however, seem...
22. part xxii. 1841. Article on “Animal Luminousness.1841. Germar. Beiträge zu einer Monographie der Gattung Pyrophorus. Germar’s Zeits. d. Entom. iii. p. 1, 1841. Bemerkungen über Elateriden. Germar’s Zeits. Entom. iv. p. 43, 184...