462 History of Luminescence 



within five or six days lost the shining; and laid abroad again, recovered 

 the shining. 9. Shining woods being laid in a dry room, within a seven- 

 night lost their shining; but being laid in a cellar, or dark room, kept 

 the shining. 10. The boring of holes in that kind of wood, and then 

 laying it abroad, seemeth to conduce to make it shine: the cause is, for 

 that all solution of continuity doth help on putrefaction, as was touched 

 before. 11. No wood hath been yet tried to shine, that was cut down 

 alive, but such as was rotted both in stock and root while it grew. 12. 

 Part of the wood that shined was steeped in oil, and retained the shining 

 a fortnight. 13. The like succeeded in some steeped in water, and much 

 better. 14. How long the shining will continue, if the wood be laid 

 abroad every night, and taken in and sprinkled with water in the day, 

 is not yet tried. 15. Trial was made of laying it abroad in frosty weather, 

 which hurt it not. 16. There was a great piece of a root which did shine, 

 and the shining part was cut off till no more shined; yet after two nights, 

 though it were kept in a dry room, it got a shining. 



These sixteen statements make up the first important scientific 

 observations and experiments on phosphorescent wood. Bacon dis- 

 covered facts which were later tested and verified many times. 

 Almost every subsequent worker has observed that the luminous 

 quality of wood persists under oil, in water and at low tempera- 

 ture—experiments designed to understand the nature of the light. 

 Of most interest is the fact that not green wood but only dead rotting 

 wood becomes luminous, that the wood must be moist, and that the 

 " putrefaction spreadeth." The real clue to an explanation lies in 

 the last statement, but science had not advanced to the point where 

 the spreading could be attributed to the growth of a luminous 

 fungus, a microorganism. 



The Luminous Mutton of Montpellier 



Following Bacon, in the seventeenth century, many observations * 

 on shining fish, flesh, and wood were made— by Borel, Bartholin and 

 Puerarius on lamb-flesh in 1640-1641, by Allatius on " river lobsters " 

 (reported by Bartholin, 1647) , by Marcgrave in 1648 and Worm 

 in 1655 on fish, by Boyle in 1667 and 1672 on wood, flesh, and fish, 

 by Beale in 1665 and 1676 on meat, by Redi in 1672 on squid and 

 a dead snake, and by Jacobaeus in 1679 on an octopus. Finally there 

 is Boccone's (1684) story of Count Marsigli, who saw luminous 



* Descartes in Principia philosophia (1644) discussed luminous wood and salt fish 

 in connection with light of the sea (see Chap. IV) . The light of " le bois pourri " 

 was classed with " le vers luisant " and " ^toiles " as light which cannot be seen in 

 the daytime because of bright sunlight, by Rend de Cerisiere, Sr. (1605-1662) , a French 

 Jesuit and writer on historical and religious subjects, in Le Philosophie Francois 

 1: 172, 1651. The views of J. Rohault have been given in Chapter IV. 



