A Song of the Beroe

From the Literary Gazette, 6 October 1849¹

(Dedicated to the Members of Section D²*.)

The fact I have now to report,
Is one partly old, partly new, sirs;
About a remarkable sort
Of the ciliograde Medusas³.
With a subject so charming and light,
‘Tis certainly fair to make merry; we
Will endeavour to do so to-night,
By chaunting our song of the Beroë⁴.

The species of which we’ve to tell,
Is that which old Otho Fabricius ⁵
Examined in Greenland so well,
When christening sinners and fishes :
‘Mongst others he fished up this same,
(It abounds in the Arctic ocean,)
And cucumis⁶ gave it for name,
Because of its jerking motion!

Strange to say if you knock it about,
Though so membranous and evanescent,
It only makes light of the clout,
And flares up the more phosphorescent;
As ticklish as Alderman Gibbs⁷,
And I fancy a little more bright, sirs;
No wonder a poke in the ribs
Should stir up a shine in its lights⁸, sirs.

It battles the currents and tides
By millions of vibratile flappers,
All clothing and knocking its sides
Like so many miniature rappers⁹.
These little hairs stand up and shake,
Like the wig of a fool in quandary:
Which maybe’s the reason they take
The name of the silly-hairy¹⁰!

Though in thousands our Beroes go,
Stirring fires that the fishes might all fry;
Yet nobody ‘mongst us did know,
How the big ones concocted the small fry.
When one day we netted a red one,
That gave double light on percussion,
And carefully searching the said one,
Discovered the cause of its blushing.

For ranged like so many gay pegs,
We found that the crimson-hued varlet,
Had stowed away two rows of eggs,
All dyed a magnificent scarlet.
And the better their presence to hide,
Since such things may tell many sins, sirs,
Had covered them up on each side,
With a baby-cloth made of its skin, sirs!

MORAL.
In this zoological screed,
The poetry (truly) of science,
A long string of morals we read
Adapted for wise men and lions¹¹.
(1) To never mind knocking about ;
(2) When poked to flare-up in a merry way:
(3) To blush when your sins are found out;
(4) And never say die – like the BEROE!

В. В¹².

* As the Gazette has heretofore lightened the dulness of Science with similar compositions, we have much pleasure in adding the “Song of the Beroe” to the lyrics of the British Association.- ED. L. G.

1. This poem was published as part of the Literary Gazette’s regular (and detailed) reporting on the annual meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, which in 1849 took place in Birmingham. ↩︎
2. Section D covered Zoology and Botany. Forbes was a Vice-President of this section in 1849. He was also a member of Section C, Geology and Physical Geography. ↩︎
3. ‘ciliograde Medusas’: a contemporary term for ctenophores, or comb jellies. ↩︎
4. A genus of ctenophore. ↩︎
5. Or Otto Fabricius. Danish naturalist, explorer and missionary (1744-1822), who wrote Fauna Groenlandica about the wildlife of Greenland. He studied Greenlandic natural history while living there as a missionary, and his book covers over 400 species, their characteristics and behaviour, and how the local Inuit people hunted, caught and made use of many of them. ↩︎
6. Cucumis usually refers to plants in the Cucurbitaceae family, such as cucumbers, melons etc. Here it also refers to a particular species of Beroe, B cucumis or the melon comb jelly. In the next line Forbes makes a not-entirely-successful pun on ‘gherkin’ with ‘jerking’. ↩︎
7. This refers to Michael Gibbs, who was Lord Mayor of London for 1844/5 amid some controversy. He was at the centre of a long-running dispute with the parish of St Stephen’s Walbrook about his management of the accounts while a churchwarden there. I haven’t been able to find a reference to his being ticklish…but he was probably quite sensitive about certain matters. ↩︎
8. Lungs; in an animal that has them. And the Beroe is bioluminescent. Yes, it’s more wordplay. ↩︎
9. Slang for a door knocker. ↩︎
10. They really did love a terrible pun in the 1840s. ↩︎
11. Probably a reference to the Red Lions Club, of which Forbes was a founder and vice-president. ↩︎
12. Forbes’ usual pen-name, a play on the pronunciation of his last name (“For-bees”). He also occasionally used BBBB or, on drawings, a tiny sketch of four bees. ↩︎

Sources

Beroe cucumis, Marine Life Information Network

‘Original Poetry’, Literary Gazette and Journal of the Belles Lettres, Arts, Sciences &ct, 6 October 1849, p.726