72 History of Luminescence 



As for that Indian stone that shined so brightly in the night, and 

 pretended to have been shewn to many in the court of France, as Andreus 

 Chioccus ^° hath declared out of Thuanus,^^ it proved but an imposture, 

 as that eminent philosopher, Licetus,^^ hath discovered; and, therefore, 

 in the revised editions of Thuanus it is not to be found. 



Thus, erroneous beliefs of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries were 

 to be corrected in the seventeenth. 



Despite the extravagant and unbelievable claims of brightness 

 and of hazard connected with the fifteenth and sixteenth century 

 stories of luminous stones, these do exist. In addition to diamonds, 

 certain varieties of fluorspar ^^ remain luminescent after exposure 

 to light for many hours, and the limiinescence is increased on warm- 

 ing. There is at least a basis for the legends. 



Rondelet, Aldrovandi, and Other Natural Historians 



Of the four great students ^* of natural history who lived in the 

 same period as Gesner, two were French, Belon and Rondelet, and 

 two were Italian, Salviani and Aldrovandi. Pierre Belon (1517- 

 1564) in 1551 and 1553 (in Latin, or 1555 in French) wrote two 

 small books on " poissons," by which he meant not only vertebrate 

 fish but also shells, starfish, crabs and other aquatic invertebrates. 

 He was no mere compiler but an original observer, who traveled 

 extensively. However, he paid scant attention to luminescence, as 

 nothing of value concerning luminous species is contained in his 

 works. 



His countryman, Guillaume Rondelet (1507-1566) , professor of 

 anatomy at Montpellier, can be classed as one of the greatest original 



^"Andrea Chiocco (died 1624), Italian physician and naturalist. 



'^Jacques Augustus de Thou (1553-1617), the French historian. 



^^ Fortunio Liceti (1577-1657) , Italian physician and philosopher in De quaesitis per 

 epistolas a claris viris responsa (Bononiae, 1640) . 



^='H. E. Millson has reported {Jour. Opt. Soc. Amer. 40: 430-435, 1950) that a variety 

 of fluorite from Trumbull, Conn., was visibly luminous to thoroughly dark adapted 

 eyes 4| years after exposure to short ultraviolet light. The initial intensity was much 

 brighter. 



^* Another scholar, less well known as a naturalist, was Julius Caesar Scaliger (1484- 

 1558) . He wrote Exotericarum exercitationum liber XV (Lutitiae, 1557) and men- 

 tioned a luminous rooster and the glowworm. Ferrante Imperato (1550-1625) , Fabius 

 Colonna or Columna (1567-1650) , G. J. Vossius (1577-1649) and Leo Allacci or Allatius 

 (1586-1669) , span the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. All these men included 

 the glowworm or other luminous species in their writings. Olaus Magnus (ca. 1490- 

 1568) , Archbishop of Upsala, who traveled widely in Europe and lived in Rome, 

 wrote of the light of Pholas and said that some fish and whales off the coast of Norway 

 were visible at night by the light of their eyes, which were 8 to 10 cubits (12-15 feet) 

 in circumference while the pupil was one cubit (1.5 feet) . The whale story is charac- 

 teristic of Magnus and of the time. 



