186
THE SEAS
-
most diverse animals, and is displayed in many different
ways, yet the actual production of light is the result of a
‘
chemical process which is identical in_all cases.
As long
'
ago as 1667 the great chemist Robert Boyle found that
'
bio-lu”minescenèe could only take place in the presence of
air while, owing to the work very largely
an American
physiologist, Professor EL NeWton Harvey, we now knowthat the light is produced as a result of the Oxidation of a
'
substance
called
luciferin.
When
this
combines
with
oxygen, light is produced, the luminescent reaction being
.
probably'represented by the following equation :—
Luciferin —|— Oxygen = Oxy—Luciierin‘ + water (+ light).
'
The reaction is essentially the same as any other oxidation,
for example that which occurs when a Candle is burnt, but
the energy produced takes the.f0rm of light only.
This is
'
one of the most-striking properties of this animal light—
it is.cold, being 1‘maCcompanied by heat of any kind and is
.
'
'
consequently-moreefcient than any of the forms of light
which we can articially produce, in all of which there is
an invariable wasteof energy owing to the accompariying
production of heat.
.
'
,
-
But besides the luciferin, a second substance known as
luciferase is invariably present When light is produced.
This is an enzyme or ferment—belon‘ging to the same
,
'
class of substance as the ferments which enable us to digést
our food—and takes no direct part in the production of
light but acts as a kind of chemical lubricant assisting in
some mysterious fashion in the union of the luciferin with
the oxygen.
Both luciferin and luciferase can be isolated
the animals which produce them so that it is possible
'
to produce animal light in the laboratory and experiment
'
'
with it in "various 'ways. !‘*‘When' the two substances are
—
,
placed in _atest—tube together, there is a momentary glow
,
Î
-‘
near the surface, where—alone there is available Oxygen
THE SEAS
-
most diverse animals, and is displayed in many different
ways, yet the actual production of light is the result of a
‘
chemical process which is identical in_all cases.
As long
'
ago as 1667 the great chemist Robert Boyle found that
'
bio-lu”minescenèe could only take place in the presence of
air while, owing to the work very largely
an American
physiologist, Professor EL NeWton Harvey, we now knowthat the light is produced as a result of the Oxidation of a
'
substance
called
luciferin.
When
this
combines
with
oxygen, light is produced, the luminescent reaction being
.
probably'represented by the following equation :—
Luciferin —|— Oxygen = Oxy—Luciierin‘ + water (+ light).
'
The reaction is essentially the same as any other oxidation,
for example that which occurs when a Candle is burnt, but
the energy produced takes the.f0rm of light only.
This is
'
one of the most-striking properties of this animal light—
it is.cold, being 1‘maCcompanied by heat of any kind and is
.
'
'
consequently-moreefcient than any of the forms of light
which we can articially produce, in all of which there is
an invariable wasteof energy owing to the accompariying
production of heat.
.
'
,
-
But besides the luciferin, a second substance known as
luciferase is invariably present When light is produced.
This is an enzyme or ferment—belon‘ging to the same
,
'
class of substance as the ferments which enable us to digést
our food—and takes no direct part in the production of
light but acts as a kind of chemical lubricant assisting in
some mysterious fashion in the union of the luciferin with
the oxygen.
Both luciferin and luciferase can be isolated
the animals which produce them so that it is possible
'
to produce animal light in the laboratory and experiment
'
'
with it in "various 'ways. !‘*‘When' the two substances are
—
,
placed in _atest—tube together, there is a momentary glow
,
Î
-‘
near the surface, where—alone there is available Oxygen