The Seventeenth Century 1 1 1 



paroxysm of arthritis he dropped off to sleep he sent out licking little 

 flames from his legs. 



Bartholin does not appear to have observed the luminescence of 

 human cadavers due to luminous bacteria, but in Book II a number 

 of cases of bacterial light are described on the flesh of animals and 

 fish. Book II, entitled " The light that is in animals," takes up 

 luminescences of the lion, horses, bulls, wolves, sheep, the dog and 

 fox, the cat and hyena, mice, snakes, insects, birds and fish. In 

 many cases the Hglit is electrical, such as is observed on combing 

 horses hair; likewise the horse of Tiberius which " disgorged flames 

 from its mouth." 



The light of snakes referred mostly to light reflected from their 

 scales. There is a long discussion of the Biblical statement: " The 

 Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people " 

 (Numbers 21: 6) . Bartholin pointed out that fiery may have meant 

 burning and referred to the bite, or it may have referred to the 

 shape and movement of serpents which are like flames of fire.-^ In 

 the chapter on birds, Pliny's luminous birds of the Hercynian forest 

 are fully discussed. 



In Bartholin's chapter, " On the light of lambs," a true biolumi- 

 nescence is described— light due to the giowth of luminous bacteria. 

 He tells the story of luminous mutton observed by Fabricius at 

 Padua in 1592, which has already been quoted (Chap. Ill) and his 

 own observations on the meat of lamb at Montpellier which im- 

 pressed him so much. Details of the account are given in Chapter 

 XIV of this book. 



The above examples of light connected with larger animals illus- 

 trate Bartholin's ability to collect material that, superficially at least, 

 supported his thesis that light was a fifth principle (in addition to 

 fire, earth, air, and water) and that it was present in all things. 



By " shining fish " Bartholin meant not only fish proper, of which 

 he cited many instances, but also almost any invertebrate that lives 

 in the sea. In the chapter on fish, the light of dactyli (Pholas) ,^^ 

 pulmo marinus (jellyfish) , oysters (possibly containing luminous 

 worms) , river lobsters (with luminous bacteria) and the " lucerna 

 piscis " of Pliny is described. True deep-sea fishes and surface forms 

 that shine from photophores with their own light were unrecorded 



^■^ It is surprising how frequently the idea is expressed in the seventeenth century 

 that a snake's tongue is fiery. Lemery (Keill translation 1698: 695) included in his 

 discussion of luminescence, " The Viper being irritated, darts forth its tongue with so 

 much quickness, that it appears all on fire." 



-* Apparently Bartholin never saw the light of Pholas and was inclined to believe 

 the Pliny story a myth (Rivinus and Boehme, 1673) . 



