Jasper County Democrat, Volume 6, Number 46, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 February 1904 — PHOSPHORESCENCE. [ARTICLE]

PHOSPHORESCENCE.

Animal tai VcgctsU* Light Rank Among Nntart'i Mysteries. Animal phosphorescence la one of the most surprising and least understood of nature’s phenomena. The pale, bluish white light of the glowworm has been found by naturalists to be dependent upon the motion of the insect’s body or legs. From this it would seem that the phosphorescence depends upon some nervous action, regulated at pleasure by the Insect, for, it has the power of obscuring it entirely. If the glowworm be crushed and the face or hands rubbed with it, luminous streaks like those produced by phosphorus will appear. They shine more brightly in oxygen gas and in nitrous acid. The power of emitting luminous rays belongs to several varieties of fly and three. species of beetle of the genus elater. One of the most brilliant of these Is the great lantern fly of South America, which gives enough light to enable a person to read by the rays from a single insect. Numerous classes of these flies are found in Surinam, where they illuminate the darkness in a most remarkable manner. In some of the bogs of Ireland lives a worm which gives out a bright green light, a fitting color for the Emerald Isle. There are many other kinds of insects which become luminous in the dark. Yet there are many curious instances of phosphorescence in dead animals and vegetable matter, the lobster among crustaceans, the whiting among fishes and decayed wood being striking examples. Their emission of light seems to depend, however, not upon putrefaction, for as this progresses their luminosity diminishes, but upon certain unknown atmospheric conditions. This phosphorescence of decayed matter has been regarded as somewhat different from the slow combustion of phosphorus, but upon examination all the chemical conditions are found to be the same. The strange phosphorescent quality of some plants and flowers Is not exactly the same as that possessed by animal matter, but it is as little understood. It seems to be an absorption of light and a subsequent liberation of it. If. a nasturtium is plucked during sunshine and carried into a dark room, the eye, after it has reposed for a few moments, will discover the flower by the light emitted from its leaves. The phosphorescence of the sea is due to a living animal, which gives nut its light under nervous excitement, as when It is stirred by the motion of a passing vessel.