76 History of Luminescence 



It does not attack him with its bite nor irritate or molest him by its sting 

 when it encounters him. Frequently and avidly it flies towards candles 

 and lights, the way the moths (papilio) do which we have treated above. 



In a section on the nature of the light, he quoted Aristotle on 

 smooth things that shine and Albertus Magnus on why the light 

 is not extinguished by water, although the reasoning of Albertus is 

 quite obscure. Aldrovandi favored the explanation of Georg Reisch, 

 the German philosopher and Prior of Freiburg, who died in 1525. 

 In a section on " Noctilucae " of his Margarita Philosophica (1st ed., 

 1496) , Reisch had written as quoted by Aldrovandi: ^^ 



Glow-worms [noctilucae] are said to be visible at night, because they 

 have an internal and inborn light by which they can be seen even in 

 the darkness, the same way as putrid wood, little worms [vermiculi],^^ or 

 fish scales, and they have this light implanted from fire. For since such 

 worms are without blood and are cold, fiery parts congregate around 

 the place of digestion and shine there. 



If this statement may be taken as a crude way of saying that glow- 

 worms, like other luminous organisms emit light as a result of an 

 oxidation (a fire) taking place internally it is not far from the truth. 

 Aldrovandi concluded: " Nature has given this light to the cicin- 

 delae on their hind part so that they can see in their nightly flight. 

 To us, I admit, it seems very small, but it is sufficient for them to 

 show them their way over the fields in their flight at night." ^^ 



Under the heading " Varied Uses," Aldrovandi stated that one 

 could write on paper with firefly juice, as had been done by Hadri- 

 anus Junius, " for whatever is written with this liquid in daytime, 

 can easily be read at night." He apparently believed in the " liquor 

 lucidus," to be described in a later section, and mentioned par- 

 ticularly the methods of Vitalis ^^ (Ad diver, morb. rem. cap 85) , 

 Gaudentius Merula (Memor, lib. 3, cap. 61) Baptista Porta and 

 Mizaldus (Memora. Cent. 6) for making the luminous liquid. He 

 also quoted Wecxerus (De Secre. lib. 3) as stating that " lampyrides 

 that are boiled with a slow fire in a cupping glass produce a water 

 suitable for catching fish." ^^ 



The same general approach was adopted by Aldrovandi in his 

 treatment of insects, as in his other works. The glowworm is illus- 

 trated by an original woodcut with six figures, the earliest scientific 

 reproduction (1602) the author has been able to find of this historic 

 insect (see fig. 4) , although it appeared in an emblem of J. Camer- 



'^ It is possible that luminous earthworms or centipedes are referred to (See Mar- 

 garita philosophica. Lib. 10, trac. 2, C 10) . This book was a small encyclopedia. 

 8» Probably Vital du Four, who died in 1327. 



