You are here
قراءة كتاب The Nature of Animal Light
تنويه: تعرض هنا نبذة من اول ١٠ صفحات فقط من الكتاب الالكتروني، لقراءة الكتاب كاملا اضغط على الزر “اشتر الآن"
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.
CONTENTS
| CHAPTER | PAGE | |
|---|---|---|
| I. | Light-Producing Organisms | 1 |
| Early records and theories. "Shining fish and flesh." "Burning of the sea." Distribution of luminous organisms in plant and animal kingdoms. Secondary luminosity. False luminosity. St. Elmo's fire. Ignis fatuus. Flashing of flowers. Luminosity in man. Use to man of photogenic organisms. | ||
| II. | Luminescence and Incandescence | 20 |
| The complete spectrum. Radiation and temperature. "Cold light." Thermoluminescence. Phosphorescence and fluorescence. Triboluminescence and piezoluminescence. Crystalloluminescence. Chemiluminescence. | ||
| III. | Physical Nature of Animal Light | 40 |
| Purkinje phenomenon. Color and spectra of animal light. Polarization. Efficiency of animal light. Infra-red radiation. Ultra-violet radiation. Luminous efficiency and visual sensibility. Production of radiation penetrating opaque objects. Intensity of animal light. Summary. | ||
| IV. | Structure of Luminous Organs | 67 |
| Photochemical and chemiphotic changes. The eye and the luminous organ. Intracellular and extracellular luminescence. Continuous and intermittent luminescence. Periodicity of luminescence. Luminous bacteria. Noctiluca and photogenic granules. Chætopterus and luminous gland cells. Cypridina. Luminous glands. The firefly. Luminous organs (photophores) with lenses, reflectors, opaque and color screens. Uses and purpose of animal light. | ||
| V. | The Chemistry of Light Production, Part I | 85 |
| Boyle's and Spallanzani's experiments. Shining wood and burning coal. Oxygen and luminescence. Carbon dioxide and luminescence. Heat production during luminescence. Luminescence and respiration. Water and luminescence. Phipson's noctilucin. Luciferin and luciferase. Photogenin and photophelein. Proluciferin. Oxyluciferin. Pyrophorin or luciferescein. Chemiluminescent reactions. "Biozymoöxyluminescence." | ||
| VI. | The Chemistry of Light Production, Part II | 114 |
| Pyrophorus luciferin and luciferase. Pholas luciferin and luciferase. Cypridina luciferin; stability, hydrolysis by acid and enzymes, adsorption, precipitation, salting out, solubility, distribution. Cypridina luciferin a proteose? Cypridina luciferase and properties. Cypridina luciferase an albumin. Specificity of luciferase. Action of fat solvent anæsthetics. Action of cyanides. Oxyluciferin. Nature of oxidative reaction. | ||
| VII. | Dynamics of Luminescence | 143 |
| Minute amounts of material for luminescence. Reaction velocity and chemiluminescence. Temperature and chemiluminescence. Oxidation in steps. Concentration and bioluminescence. Temperature and bioluminescence. Oxidation with and without luciferase. Reaction velocity and color of bioluminescence. | ||
THE NATURE OF ANIMAL LIGHT
CHAPTER I
LIGHT-PRODUCING ORGANISMS
The fact that animals can produce light must have been recognized from the earliest times in countries where fireflies and glowworms abound, but it is only since the perfection of the microscope that the phosphorescence of the sea, the light of damp wood and of dead fish and flesh has been proved to be due to living organisms. Aristotle mentions the light of dead fish and flesh and both Aristotle and Pliny that of damp wood. Robert Boyle in 1667 made many experiments to show that the