34 History of Luminescence 



to light, but the proof of this property is of much later date." 

 Carbuncles do not exhibit this property. 



Pliny also mentioned shining precious stones in the Historia 

 Naturalis (Book 37, Chap. 7, "Of Carbuncles or Rubies and their 

 sundrie kinds: ") , " whose colour is fierie " and these rubies " being 

 cast into the fire, they seeme dead and doe loose their lustre: con- 

 trariwise, if they bee well sprinkled and drenched with water they 

 seeme to glow, yea and to flame out againe." This statement was 

 copied by Solinus {ca. third century a. d.) and has been frequently 

 used to claim a knowledge of luminous gems by the Romans. 



Speaking of carbuncles Pliny also wrote: " They have their name 

 of the likenesse unto fire, and yet fire hath no power of them, which 

 is the reason that some call them Apyroti." He continued: some 

 kinds " doe glitter and shine of their owne nature: by reason 

 whereof, they are discovered soone wheresoever they lie, by the 

 reverberation of the Sun-beams." Note in this (as in other passages) 

 that the shining and glowing occur in the light and not in the dark. 



Another of Pliny's stories ^® concerned a marble lion on the tomb 

 of King Hermios in the Island of Cyprus, whose eyes were set with 

 emeralds which shone so brilliantly on the surrounding sea that the 

 tunny fish were frightened away, so that the fishermen replaced the 

 emeralds with stones which did not shine. However, in speaking 

 of the smaragdus of Cyprus, Pliny said the stone had " a rich and 

 humid transparency resembling the tints of the sea. Hence it is 

 that these stones are at once diaphanous and shining, or, in other 

 words, reflect their colors and allow the vision to penetrate within." 

 This statement does not imply self-luminosity. 



Aelian, like Pliny, was prone to relate marvelous stories without 

 too much regard for the truth. A much quoted anecdote con- 

 cerned ^^ " a small stone which shone at night like a flame. A stork 

 dropped it into the lap of Heracleis, a woman of Taranto, by way 

 of recompense, because she had cared for the stork when its leg 

 had been broken in a fall the preceding year." Although the classic 

 names of precious stones— carbunculus, a little coal, or lychnis, a 

 lamp— suggest luminosity and there are innumerable stories of their 

 marvelous power, no unequivocal proof of the actual emission of 

 light from the various varieties described by ancient writers has been 

 forthcoming. Nevertheless, the belief in luminous gems is found 

 among most nations, particularly the Chinese, and plays an im- 

 portant part in their literature. 



" See B. Cellini in Chap. Ill and R. Boyle in Chap. IX and X. 

 ««Book XXXVII, Chap. 17. Bostock and Riley translation 6:410, 1857. 

 *^ Aelian, De natura animalium, Book 8, Chap. 21. Translated from Gesner, De 

 lunariis, 1555. 



