DEAD ANIMAL MATTER. 109 
hasty increase of light that disclosed itself in the 
veal upon admitting the air into the exhausted 
receiver, it appeared that the decrement, though 
slowly made, had been considerable.”” The lumi- 
nosity of flesh generally lasts about four days, 
after which putrefaction sets im rapidly. 
A pecuhar mucilagmous substance, or mucus, 
is sometimes seen about spring, on the damp 
ground near rivulets or stagnant pools in the 
fields, which, from the circumstance of its being 
occasionally phosphorescent at night, has been 
regarded, since the middle ages, as having some 
connection with shooting stars. The Belgian pea- 
sants call it “‘ the substance of shooting stars.” 
I have sketched the history of this curious sub- 
stance in the ‘Journal de Médecine et de Pharma- 
cologie’ of Bruxelles, for 1855. It was analysed 
chemically by Mulder, and anatomically by Carus, 
and from their observations appears to be the pe- 
culiar mucus which envelops the eges of the frog. 
It swells to an enormous volume when it has free 
access to water. As seen upon the damp ground 
in spring, it was often mistaken for some species 
of fungus; it is however simply the spawn of 
frogs, which has been swallowed by some large 
crows or other birds, and afterwards vomited, 
from its peculiar property of swelling to an im- 
mense size in their bodies. From the fact of this 
mucilaginous matter having been sometimes ob- 
