102 History of Luminescence 



dates from around 1700 and must be one of the oldest examples of a 

 luminous insect in existence. There is also a shell of Pholas dactylus, 

 the luminous mollusc, from the collection of Thomas Pennant, 

 about 1777. 



One of the most remarkable books on various collections of 

 curiosities was the Museum Museorurn oder Vollstandige Schau- 

 Biihne (complete display-stage) , published at Frankfort-on-the Main 

 in 1704 by Michael Bernhart Valentini (1657-1729), a professor at 

 Giessen and a F. R. S. The folio volume of 520 pages in German 

 dealt with minerals and metals in Book I, with seeds, roots, plants 

 and fruits in Book II, and with animals in Book III. It contained 

 not only a list of objects in various museums but a detailed account 

 of what was known concerning these things, with references to the 

 literature, really a cyclopedia of natural history. 



The first edition (1704) contained only a short description (p. 

 52) of the Lapis Bononiensis, calling it " einen anderen frembden 

 Risselstein," and referring to the Miscellanea Curiosa (Dec II, 

 An VII) for further details. However, the greatly enlarged second 

 edition (1714, 1136 pages) devoted considerable space to luminous 

 earth, luminous eggs, luminous linen, and luminous stones. The 

 earth came from Stockholm and gave off a light when rubbed in 

 the dark. The story of luminous hen's eggs described by Paullin 

 in 1687 (see Chap. XIV) was repeated and elicited considerable 

 comment by Valentini. After stating that Albertus Magnus (Lib. II 

 in anim. tr. 3 C 12) had already paid attention to luminous eggs in 

 his time, and that Scaliger (Exercit, 174) had mentioned white hens 

 which glowed when roosting on a tree at night, Valentini wrote: 



luminous eggs can perhaps arise if dogs or cats, whose vapor [Diinste] 

 also luminescences, lie on them, or if a young woman seeks to incubate 

 an egg under her breasts, and sweat and Lebens-Balsam (in which there 

 is much Lebens-Geister) attaches to it, in the same manner as the linen 

 of honorable [erlicher] men is accustomed to luminesce when removed 

 in darkness. 



In Chapter IV, " Von denen leuchtenden Blitz und brennenden 

 Steinen," all kinds of phosphori are described, including those con- 

 sidered in a later section of this chapter— phosphorus ignius or 

 fulgurans, or merely the " pyropus," which had been discovered by 

 the German, Brand, the Lapis Bononiensis, the Balduini Phosphorus 

 and the Phosphorus Smaragdinus or Thermophosphorus, with a few 

 remarks on the mercurial phosphorus of Picard and Bernoulli. In 



by Fougeroux de Bonderoy (1769) , which appeared in St. Antoine near Paris in Sep- 

 tember, 1766, and startled the ladies living there (see Chapter XVI on Pyrophorus) . 



