110 History of Luminescence 



first by the chemist Vincentius Casciorolus. It soon emits the light which 

 it has imbibed from the surrounding illuminated air wonderfully in a 

 dark place with the brightness of lighted coal and retains the same faculty 

 of conceiving light of several years. With a renewed calcination it is 

 impregnated again. . . . 



Among plants (Book I, Chap. 3) , rotten wood, the luminous 

 barras of Josephus and the nyctegretos or nyctilops of Pliny were dis- 

 cussed, as well as " the Indian reed [Canna indica] from which it has 

 been common knowledge that sparks can be produced, and trees the 

 same, about which Thucydides and Lucretius write that they con- 

 ceive fire through mutual collision when the wind blows." 



Among the examples of shining men are many undoubted electro- 

 luminescences described in Chapter VIL Bartholin cited the sparks 

 which leaped from the body of Theodoric, King of the Goths, or 

 " What rumor says about Carolus Gonzaga, the Duke of Mantua: 

 after slight friction applied to his entire skin burning appearances 

 used to come forth." 



Mixed with these accounts are others of purely figurative connota- 

 tion. Bartholin wrote (Book I, Chap. 9) , 



Athenaeus (Deipn. Book 13) introduces a prostitute by the name of 

 Lampyris [shining like a lamp], perhaps on account of the similar splen- 

 dor of her whole body, by which she was endowed by nature or which 

 she had acquired with red dye by way of her meretricious art. However, 

 Martialis, (Ep. IX, 3) pronounced the old woman resplendent only from 

 the shimmer of clothes and jewels: " The dazzling adulteress is resplen- 

 dent with Erythrean stones." 



The lights observed from parts of the human body were also elec- 

 trical phenomena. For example: 



On the manifest light of the limbs. [Book I, Chap. 19.] 



We have reported on the arms of the Pisan Antonius Gianfius. ... A 

 similar thing is reported about those of Franciscus Guidus: he was lying 

 naked in his bed and casually stroking his arms with his hand when be 

 elicited considerable sparks. ... A rare example is that of a matron in 

 Verona, whose skin (on arms and feet) even if only superficially touched 

 shot forth sparks. . . . 



Another noble matron was so marked by the Creator that whenever 

 she touched her body slightly with a cloth sparks would shoot forth 

 from her limbs in profusion, visible to all in the house, as if cast out 

 from silex, with the accompaniment of a hiss audible to all. . . . 



. . . The Cardinal Count Conrad of Urach, famous for his holy life . . . 

 [is reported] to have seen a very bright light emanate by night from 

 three fingers. . . . 



Of Gothofredus Antonius it is told that whenever after a severe 



