Front matter

Transcriber's Notes

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PREFACE

CONTENTS

BIBLIOGRAPHY

INDEX

Monographs On Experimental Biology

EDITED BY

JACQUES LOEB, Rockefeller Institute T. H. MORGAN, Columbia University W. J. V. OSTERHOUT, Harvard University

THE NATURE OF ANIMAL LIGHT

BY

E. NEWTON HARVEY, Ph.D.

MONOGRAPHS ON EXPERIMENTAL BIOLOGY

PUBLISHED

FORCED MOVEMENTS, TROPISMS, AND ANIMAL CONDUCT By JACQUES LOEB, Rockefeller Institute

THE ELEMENTARY NERVOUS SYSTEM By G. H. PARKER, Harvard University

THE PHYSICAL BASIS OF HEREDITY By T. H. MORGAN, Columbia University

INBREEDING AND OUTBREEDING: THEIR GENETIC AND SOCIOLOGICAL SIGNIFICANCE By E. M. EAST and D. F. JONES, Bussey Institution, Harvard University

THE NATURE OF ANIMAL LIGHT By E. N. HARVEY, Princeton University

IN PREPARATION

PURE LINE INHERITANCE By H. S. JENNINGS, Johns Hopkins University

THE EXPERIMENTAL MODIFICATION OF THE PROCESS OF INHERITANCE By R. PEARL, Johns Hopkins University

LOCALIZATION OF MORPHOGENETIC SUBSTANCES IN THE EGG By E. G. CONKLIN, Princeton University

TISSUE CULTURE By R. G. HARRISON, Yale University

PERMEABILITY AND ELECTRICAL CONDUCTIVITY OF LIVING TISSUE By W. J. V. OSTERHOUT, Harvard University

THE EQUILIBRIUM BETWEEN ACIDS AND BASES IN ORGANISM AND ENVIRONMENT By L. J. HENDERSON, Harvard University

CHEMICAL BASIS OF GROWTH By T. B. ROBERTSON, University of Toronto

COÖRDINATION IN LOCOMOTION By A. R. MOORE, Rutgers College

OTHERS WILL FOLLOW

Monographs on Experimental Biology

THE NATURE OF ANIMAL LIGHT

BY

E. NEWTON HARVEY, Ph.D.

PROFESSOR OF PHYSIOLOGY, PRINCETON UNIVERSITY

PHILADELPHIA AND LONDON J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY

COPYRIGHT, 1920. BY J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY

Electrotyped and Printed by J. B. Lippincott Company. The Washington Square Press, Philadelphia, U. S. A.

EDITORS' ANNOUNCEMENT

The rapid increase of specialization makes it impossible for one author to cover satisfactorily the whole field of modern Biology. This situation, which exists in all the sciences, has induced English authors to issue series of monographs in Biochemistry, Physiology, and Physics. A number of American biologists have decided to provide the same opportunity for the study of Experimental Biology.

Biology, which not long ago was purely descriptive and speculative, has begun to adopt the methods of the exact sciences, recognizing that for permanent progress not only experiments are required but quantitative experiments. It will be the purpose of this series of monographs to emphasize and further as much as possible this development of Biology.

Experimental Biology and General Physiology are one and the same science, in method as well as content, since both aim at explaining life from the physico-chemical constitution of living matter. The series of monographs on Experimental Biology will therefore include the field of traditional General Physiology.

Jacques Loeb, T. H. Morgan, W. J. V. Osterhout.

PREFACE

Bioluminescence, the production of light by animals and plants, has always excited the admiration of the layman and the wonder of the scientist. It is not surprising that an enormous literature dealing with the subject has grown up. A large part of this literature, however, is made up merely of reports that a certain animal is luminous, or records of especially brilliant phosphorescence of the sea. Among those who have inquired somewhat more carefully into the nature and causes of light production may be mentioned the names of Beijerinck, R. Boyle, Dahlgren, Dubois, Ehrenberg, Krukenberg, Mangold, McDermott, Molisch, Panceri, Pflüger, Phipson, Quatrefages, Spallanzani, and Trojan. Several of these men have written comprehensive monographs on the subject.

It is not the purpose of this book to deal with every phase of bioluminescence. Volumes could be written on the evolutionary side of the problem and the structure and uses of luminous organs. These questions can only be touched upon. Neither is it my purpose to discuss the ultimate cause of the light, whether due to vibration of electrons or to other causes. That problem must be left to the physicist, although it is highly probable that a study of animal light will give important information regarding the nature of light in general, and no theory of light can be adequate which fails to take into account the extraordinary powers of luminous animals.

We shall be concerned largely with the physical characteristics of animal light and the chemical processes underlying its production. Great advances have been made since the first early guesses that the light was due to phosphorus and was a kind of oxidation. Although the problem cannot be considered as solved, it has been placed on a sound physico-chemical basis. Some material is oxidized. Exactly what this material is and why light accompanies its oxidation are the two more fundamental problems in the field of Bioluminescence. How far and with what success we have progressed toward a solution of these problems may be seen from a perusal of the following pages.

It gives me pleasure to acknowledge the kindness of Dr. W. E. Forsythe of the Nela Institute, Cleveland, Ohio, in reading and criticizing the manuscript of Chapter III, and of Professor Lyman of Harvard University for a similar review of Chapter II. I am also deeply indebted to my wife for reading the proof and to Dr. Jacques Loeb and Prof. W. J. V. Osterhout for many suggestions throughout the book. My thanks are also due to Prof. C. Ishikawa of the Agricultural College, Imperial University of Tokio, Japan, for his generous assistance in providing Cypridina material. Finally I wish to acknowledge the support of the Carnegie Institution of Washington, through its director of Marine Biology, Dr. Alfred G. Mayor. Without this support much of the work described in this book could not have been accomplished.

E. N. H. Princeton, N. J., October, 1919.