146 History of Luminescence 



would shine all over, and others of it would shine only in some certain 

 places, in form of Stars. It was likewise observed that with some Butchers 

 almost all their meat was found to be luminous, and with other Butchers 

 there was not a bit to be seen of that kind. Men concluded presently that 

 such flesh as this was altogether unwholesome to eat of, they therefore 

 flung away a great deal of it into the river, and several Butchers there 

 were like to be ruin'd by this accident; but at last perceiving that there 

 was such quantities of it, some people ventur'd to eat of it, and at length 

 it was found to be as good meat as any other. 



I conceive that this Phenomenon may be imputed to two causes. 



First, To the Pasturage of the Beasts; for it is certain that in some 

 Countries the Herbs are more spirituous than in others, and those do 

 give such an active impression to the humors of those Beasts who feed 

 on them, that they may have a disposition to the making this Phosphorus. 



Secondly, To these Beasts having been heated more than others in 

 their driving upon the road, or else to their having been killed before 

 they had sufficiently rested after their journey; for the spirits being put 

 into a great motion thereby, do not every where lose it after the Beast 

 is killed, and so long as the spirits do continue their rapid motion, so 

 long the Phosphorus is to be seen, but when the flesh begins to stink, 

 there appears no more light in it because these vigorous spirits are then 

 spent, or else they come to be confused in the meat by the means of 

 another fermntation. 



But you will not fail to make me this Objection: If the Phosphorus 

 does consist in a violent motion of the insensible parts, then stinking 

 meat should be more luminous than that which was newly killed, because 

 the smell proceeds from the separation of the principles of a mixt body 

 by fermentation, which as they rise from it do strike the Nerve of Smell- 

 ing, wherefore there must needs be a great motion of parts in stinking 

 meat than in that which is fresh. 



I answer. That that which makes the Phosphorus in meat newly killed 

 is a matter much more active and more subtile than that which gives 

 the ill smell to stinking meat; it is a remainder of the spirits which do 

 run with a prodigious swiftness through the body of a living creature in 

 all its parts, and unless the matter be in this degree of motion, it will 

 never become lucid, no more than if the insensible parts of inflammable 

 matters be not put into a very rapid motion, they will not take fire. 



Perhaps also it may be that the meat in the corrupting might receive 

 a sufficient agitation of parts to produce light, as it happens sometimes 

 in the standing puddles of Urine. 



In considering the light which appears upon the surface; of standing 

 Urines, I have been led to think that there are oftentimes ferosities that 

 settle in the bodies of sick persons which might be in a condition to 

 make kinds of Phosphorus, if they had but air enough to illuminate 

 them; at least they do produce the effects of fire, as in Gouts, in Rheu- 

 matisms, in the Erysipelas, and in abundance of other Inflammations. 



