The plasma produced in an "hour glass" shaped discharge tube has been used as a scattering medium for the light of a ruby laser. The scattered light was observed in varions conditions. The values of the scattering parameter cc = lilkl D ranged from 0.9 to 1.3.The shapes of the spectra obtained for a helium plasma are in very good agreement with those predicted by the theory of light scattering by a plasma in thermal equilibrium. No anomalies, in particular no satellites related to the plasma frequency have been observed. The intensity of the central h e or ion feature compared with the rest of the spectrum gives the predicted ratio as we!], both for a helium or hydrogen plasma.