106 History of Luminescence 



sun, as divers inform us. Thus, nature gave to these animals this viscous 

 liquid imbued with counterfeit light, that by its help, as it were by a 

 lamp born with them, they might both seek food and also easily elude 

 the snares of foes by the voluntary emission of light and darkness, and 

 thus they might not be destitute of those things that are necessary for 

 their own life. 



In this manner Kircher attempted to answer the question, what is 

 the use of light to a mollusc or jellyfish? 



In the chapter on the luminescence of stones Kircher dealt exclu- 

 sively with the Bononian phosphor which " so absorbed and incor- 

 porated the light that when it was removed from its box and put in 

 a dark place it poured forth the light that it had absorbed, just like 

 live coals, to the great admiration of spectators." He pointed out 

 that the mineral was not restricted to the region of Bologna, as he 

 had found it near Tolpha, " where men are accustomed to dig up 

 lumps of alum." His methods of preparation and his views on the 

 cause of the light will be found in Chapter VIII on Phosphorescence. 



During his travels and after, Kircher acquired sufficient " rarities " 

 to form a museum, established in Rome. Its contents were first 

 described by G. Sepi in 1678, later by Filippo Buonanni (1638- 

 1725) . In Buonanni's book. Museum Kicheranum ... in Collegia 

 Romano Societatis Jesu etc. (Rome, 1709) , a whole page is devoted 

 to the stone which was called Bononian. The account was largely 

 taken from Kircher himself, from Licetus (1640) , and from Mar- 

 silius (1698). 



Most of the luminescences mentioned by Kircher were also de- 

 scribed by Kaspar Schott (1608-1666), a Jesuit priest, professor of 

 mathematics at Wiirzburg and friend and companion both of von 

 Guericke and of Kircher. Indeed, details of the vacuum pump 

 invented by von Guericke -- were first published in Schott's Me- 

 chanica Hydraulica-Pneumatica (1657) . He was especially interested 

 in phenomena of light. However, the subject was well covered by 

 Kircher, and Schott added nothing new to knowledge of luminous 

 human beings, or of luminous fish, meat, oysters, sugar when scraped, 

 etc. The material was collected in his Thaumaturgus Physicus sive 

 Magia Universalis Naturae et Artis, Pars IV, Herbipoli, 1657. A 

 later version, Physica Curiosa (1662) is an extraordinary mixture 

 of angels, spectres, monsters, portents, and meteorological phe- 

 nomena, such as the aurora borealis, St. Elmo's fire, ignis fatuus, 

 and ignis lambens, together with additional accounts of the lumines- 



^^ Otto von Guericke (1602-1686) did not publish Experinienta nova Magdeburgica 

 until 1672. Schott's account inspired Boyle to set Hooke the task of constructing an 

 improved pump. 



