Shining Fish, Flesh, and Wood 463 



lizard eggs and of C. F. Paullin (1687) , who reported luminous 

 hen's eggs. Many of these accounts are mere observations, but in 

 some cases the writers presented theories of the origin of the light 

 and Boyle and Beale performed experiments designed to find out 

 something about the phenomenon. 



PIERRE BOREL 



Few occasions have given rise to more wonder and speculation 

 than the luminous mutton which appeared at Montpellier in 1640 

 and 1641. One of the first to notice the light of 1640 was Petrus 

 Borellus (Pierre Borel, 1620-1689) , Royal Physician and member 

 of the French Academy. While giving the work in medicine at 

 Montpellier in 1640, he saw " the flesh of a wether [castrated ram] 

 shining at night like so many glow-worms." His explanation of the 

 phenomenon presented many years later (1657) was as follows: ^ 



Some used to think that it arose from a particular plant eaten by the 

 wether, for plants have been found shining at night, as fungus stellatus, 

 and the root of Baaras, others thought that it arose from a certain rotten- 

 ness, as in rotten wood, shining at night, from which they would an- 

 nounce a future pestilence; others attribute it to a certain magic virtue. 

 But I consider that it was able to do this by means of viscid membranes 

 retaining for a certain time the captured light of the sun (as the stone 

 of Bononia has been said to do, which having been exposed to the 

 light, afterwards shines in the dark) . Thus the eyes of many retain for 

 some time the light of the sun, just as after a sight of the sun they 

 perceive on walls figures of the sun from images taken from it. 



Borel then enumerated the various luminous phenomena known 

 at that time and elaborated his theory further by declaring that 

 " air is kindled daily by the sun " and " that the fiery heat of a 

 shining part kindles the denser parts of air, whence light can be 

 emitted to a small distance; that light, however, is so much burning 

 air, for it is changed over in turn to elements. . . ." 



THOMAS BARTHOLIN 



In 1636 Thomas Bartholin (1616-1680) started his travels through- 

 out Europe and some five years later, was able to give a detailed 

 description of another display of luminous mutton at Montpellier. 

 Indeed, this phenomenon led hirn to write De Luce Animalium 

 (1647) . It was in April, 1641, that ® " with some rare spectacle, all 



^ p. Borel, Historiarum, et observationum medico physicarum, Parisii, Century I, 

 Obs. 3: 5-7, 1657. Translated by Miss Hannah T. Croasdale. 



^ All Bartholin quotations have been translated from De luce honiinum et hrutorum, 

 Hafniae, 1669, by Mrs. Annamarie Holborn. 



