84 History of Luminescence 



also sometimes viscose, that is to say, clammy, by reason whereof, they 

 cleaving together and not being dispersed, are after divers sorts set on 

 fire, and appear sometimes like Dragons, sometimes like Goats, some- 

 times like Candles, sometimes like Spears. 



The goats, candles and spears are manifestations of the aurora 

 borealis. 



Continuing, Fulke wrote: 



The efficient cause of all Meteors is that cause which maketh them; 

 even as the carpenter is the efficient cause of a house. . . . The first and 

 efficient cause is God the worker of all wonders . . . [for] fire, haile, snow, 

 ice, wind and storms, doe his will and commandment; . . . The second 

 cause efficient, is double, either remote, that is to say, farre off or next 

 of all. 



Fulke then proceeded to explain that the sun is a far-off cause but 

 that " the next cause efficient as the first qualities are heat and cold, 

 which cause divers effects in Vapors and Exhalations." 



There were also " lights that goe before men, and follow them 

 abroad in the fields, in the night season." They are called " ignis 

 fatuus " if observed on land, and " Helena," or, when two together, 

 " Castor and Pollux," when observed at sea, i. e. examples of St. 

 Elmo's Fire. 



Like the alleged supernatural feats of magicians and sorcerers, all 

 strange lights such as ignis fatuus or ignis lambens were grouped 

 together as works of the devil. Few men of the sixteenth century 

 had the conviction or the courage to explain such phenomena by 

 natural means. Johann Wier (1515-1588) was an exception. Born 

 in Brabant and physician to the Due de Cleues, he wrote several 

 books on sorcery, one of which®* was finished in 1577 and pub- 

 lished in a French tranlsation in 1579 as Histoires Disputes et Dis- 

 course des Illusions et Impostures des Diables, des Magiciens In- 

 fames, Sorcieres et Empoisonneurs, des Ensorcelez et Demoniaques 

 et de la Guerison d'Iceus; etc. 



Wier made the attempt to explain supernatural things by activities 

 of " mother nature." As a physician, Wier laid stress on influences at 

 work on the mind and body of man, but in a section. Book I, Chap. 

 18) entitled " On estime quelquefois que les choses naturelles et 

 artificielles soyent oeuures des diables," he attempted to show that 

 the ignis fatiuis {jeu folet) and ignis lambens (feu lechant) , as well 

 as other natural luminescences had a physical explanation. He 

 wrote: 



"* A reprint was issued in 1885 by the Bureaux du Progr^s Medical, as part of the 

 Bibliothtque Diabolique. The translator is not mentioned. Wier's works appeared 

 as Opera omnia at Amsterdam in 1660. 



