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Show THE FIREFLY PUZZLE. Despite the fact that science has been puzzling over- the problem for many years experimenting and analyzing an-alyzing and dissecting the glowworm's glow-worm's secret Is still unsolved. We know very little more about its mysterious mys-terious lamp physiologic light the experts call It than did our forefathers. fore-fathers. Even Its purpose Is still hhi den. Except to delight the human eye, the firefly's aimless flashing through tho trees, tho noctlluca's brlllllant Illumination Il-lumination of the sea seem to be absolutely abso-lutely purposeless They may have something to do with the reproduction of the species, says F. A. McDermott in tho 'Popular Science Monthly," but this Is mere speculation. Mr. McDermott goes on to tell what little wo do know regarding physiologic physiolo-gic notion that tho light ls due to the prcsenco of phosphorous In tho Insect's In-sect's body Is a mistake. Analyses show very minute quantities of this element, and these in tho form of phosphates. The light Is tho most economical form of illumination known. Its efficiency Is ninety-six per cent, as compared with four per cent for the best artificial Uluniinant known Tho amount of heat produced by tho firefly In running its lamp Is so small that it can not be measured The light from different phosphorescent phospho-rescent organism has been described as of very various colors red, blue, green, yellow etc Spectroscopic analyses an-alyses of tho common firefly's fleshes showed "an unsymmctrlcal structureless structure-less hand In the rod, yellow, and J green." A fluorescent substance may he extracted from the common firefly When some of Its luminous tissue Is carefiillv dried, it may be made o glow ngaln by moistening It with water wa-ter It retains this power for considerable consid-erable periods If kept dry. It Is practically1 certain that oxygen oxy-gen Is necessary to the production of physologic light, so that It may ho considered as due to some mysterious process of oxidation. The structure of tho light organs of all phosphorescent phosphores-cent organisms Is quite similar. They "appear to be masses of cells of some spoclal kind" penetrated by a network net-work of passages. What theso tubules tubu-les contain during Hfo Is not known. It Is evident enough from the abovo summary that all we are really sure of at present regarding physiologic light is that wo do not know anything at all about fit, at least anything of scientific value In explaining its rays-torlous rays-torlous characteristics. The field is an extremely fascinating one, and a real solution of the problem might have Important and far-reaching economic eco-nomic results, because tho present artificial ar-tificial lighting methods are highly Inefficient and wasteful. Of course the puzzle will be unraveled some time or other aml a second Standard Oil fortune mav be awaiting tho lucky mau. From Collier's for September 3 |