552 Possible Origin of Ignis Faluns. 



evening, July 4s 1837, the old castle, at the southern entrance 

 to the city of Canterbury, appeared as if a stream of red light 

 was issuing from the old ruins. On repairing to the spot, it 

 was discovered that the light emanated from an innumerable 

 swarm of small insects which had collected on the walls, and 

 about the old ruins. They disappeared at sunrise next morn- 

 ing. A similar phenomenon was witnessed in the same place 

 about thirty years ago."— W. H. While. July 27. 1837. 



[The above paragraph appeared in one of the London 

 papers as a quotation from the Kentish Gazette, but we have 

 some reason for believing the statement to have been a mere 

 fabrication. — Ed,~] 



Origin of the Ignis Fatuus. — The July Number of your 

 Journal is just lying before me ; and, among the many interest- 

 ing articles it contains, I have found one which, I think, ought 

 to be refuted, as it tries to explain the phenomenon of the 

 Ignis Fatuus by the phosphorescence of insects. From your 

 remark at the end of the article, it sufficiently appears how 

 little you are swayed by the opinion of the author. How- 

 ever, I have observed the meteor too well myself to give 

 the least credit to any attempt of ascribing such effects to 

 such causes ; not to mention that the season at which Ignes 

 Fatui are commonly observed (November) is one when 

 scarcely an insect, except the Phalag s na Noctua brumaria, is 

 able to stir. The light of the fire-fly, though moving, is 

 but a spark, and that of the glowworm does not change its 

 place. As for the mole cricket, it certainly haunts boggy 

 meadows ; but the insulated observation of a farmer of Sim- 

 pringham cannot, I think, militate against the negative testi- 

 mony of the many who, like myself, have kept that 

 animal in confinement during long periods, without ob- 

 serving in it the least phosphorescence. I may say that 

 I have taken great trouble, and spent many a night, to 

 observe the Will-with-a-wisp in its haunting-places ; yet, 

 though in dark and misty weather I had often seen lights 

 moving, and had many a time fallen into swamps and quag- 

 mires, I had never come near enough what I thought a Jack- 

 oMantern to observe it closely, or even to become fully con- 

 vinced of the existence of the phenomenon from my own ex- 

 perience. However, in the year 1818, I was fortunate enough 

 to get a fine view of the Ignes Fatui operating on an extensive 

 scale. I was then at Schnepfenthal, in the Duchy of Gotha ; 

 and in a clear November night, between 11 and 12 o'clock, 

 when I had just undressed, the bright moonshine allured me 

 to the window to survey the expanse of boggy meadows which 

 spread two or three English miles in length, by a quarter of a mile, 



