172 PHOSPHORESCENCE. 
We thus become impressed with the generality 
of these phenomena, which have hitherto been re- 
carded only as rare and mysterious evolutions of 
hight. 
It is curious to note the progress of the dis- 
covery of phosphoric phenomena, and the in- 
effectual attempts that have been made to explain 
them as our knowledge gradually extended. 
The ancient Greeks gave the name Phosphorus 
to the morning star, or planet Venus, when it 
rises before the sun. By the Latins, the name of 
Lucifer was given to this star, which the French 
term Itoile de Berger. 
Although the phosphorescence of the Bologna 
stone, and certain other phosphorit, was only ob- 
served in the seventeenth century, the luminosity 
of the sea was familiar to observers in the darkest 
ages of antiquity. Some authors assert that it 
was generally attributed by the ancients to Castor 
and Pollux; but the phenomenon attributed to 
these divinities was simply the electric hght which 
IT have alluded to as the Hire of St. Elmo, appear- 
ing in stormy weather on the masts of ships. 
Aristotle mentions light proceeding from pu- 
trescent substances and from glowworms; Pliny 
was acquainted with the luminous properties of 
the dead Pholas and certain Meduse, and this 
ancient naturalist knew that by rubbing one of 
these animals upon a plank the wood became 
