Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1919-11-28
Scientific Discussions
by Garrett P. Serviss

In the damp autumn woods the fox
hres' glow Their light is mysterious,
shostly, startlingly bright when it
catches the corner of the eve amid
the enhanced darkness of night in a
forest, but nebulous, wavering, if
looked at intently. The lord of the
midnight, the red fox, himself, might
oe imagined Sinking away, in sus-
plclous fear, from the neighborhood
oI this silent, cold, spectral, freight
Mnich haunts old stumps and decay
ms trunks or trees that fell, over
come Wlth age, a generation ago,
Strange as the avowal may seem.
l would not exchange the memory
OF my boyhood thrills over the mys-
terry or fox fire for all the de-mysti-
Tying science that l have since
learned about it The latter can be
communicated to anybody; the for
Ller 10 those only whose lives are not
summed up in "the days work" and
the days play.
But the science of fox fire" is III
tenseiy interesting, too. The light
is believed to be caused by tie phos-
phorescence of a kind of fInrns
called Agaricus melleus, which flour
Ishes ABOUT the roots of trees and
sehds Its microscopic filaments into
the rootstock. or base of the trunk.
causing decay. These filaments con-
tlnue alive in the rotting wood. and
one property of their vital activity is
20 give forth pale, glimmering light
10 De sure, here is a mystery still.
FOR science Is not able, yet, to explain
precisely how or why the light is pro-
uuced. But, at any rate, there is at
which serves to Danish the supersti
tious way of looking at such things
which formerly prevailed. To say
that dead wood gives forth light is
certainly more mystifying than to say
that minute organisms, living in the
dead wood, gives forth the light. The
latter then becomes no more myster-
ious than the light of a FREELY.
IT familiarity breeds contempt"
1t also breeds insensibility to myster-
les. We are absolutely swallowed up
in mystery, and there is not single
explanation that science offers, of
anything whatever, that cannot be
shown to rest ultimately on mystery.
But, after we have invented a chain
of explanations we get so far away
from the underlying mystery that we
ignore it.
Fox fire" is the most romantic,
but it is not by any means the only
kind of phosphorescence displayed
by organic matter. Decaying fish
and other animal substances glow
strangely in the dark. In their case
the light producing organisms are
bacteria, and sometimes the micro
scopic individuals whose united ac.
ton causes the mysterious glow ap-
pear as shinigg points amid the
inert matter about them. The per-
haps doubtful accounts of faint lumi
nous haze lowering over the surface
of the bodies of persons recently de-
ceased have been tentatively ex-
planned as due to some similar source
of phosphorescent action.
A gigantic and marvelously beau
tiful display of the strange light-pro-
ducing power of pkosphorescent or
ganisms is often witnessed at sea, for
the exhibitions OF waves of fire" to
which voyagers on the ocean are
sometimes treated are scientifically
ascribed to swarms of floating lumt-
nous organisms, such as protoZa
(primitive animal lfe) and proto-
phvta (primitive plant life).
Why should these little, simple,
primitive organisms possess the ex-
traordfnary power which larger and
advanced forms lack to make light?
we 40 not Know, DuC there may he
some hidden significance in the fol-
lowing brief sequence of facts: These
organisms lie close to the point where
physical life originates: light is a
form of electricity; electricity seems
to be the foundation of life as we'll
as of matter.
Phosphorescence also pertains to
mineral matter Sometimes it is Il
direct result of the action of SUNLIGHT
upon such matter. Thus some dia-
monds after being exposed to 81 trone
light will glow in the dark. There
are many examples of this kind of
phosphorescence. Indeed, the whole
earth possibly possesses n Slight
light-radiating property. which may
be the combined effect of various
phosphorescent activities going on
upon its surface.
There are many unexplained ap-
pearances which might be due to this
cause. Strangey luminous nights have
occasionally been known. In this
connection there is a remarkable
passage in one of Arago's contrihu-
tions to the French "Annuaire du
Bureau des Longitudes" about "the
faint, diffused light which guides the
steps of the traveller in cloudy, STAR
less and moonless nights in autumn
and winter, even when there is no
snow on the ground"