464 History of Luminescence 



the meat of the butchers in the meat market shone very brightly 

 and illuminated the whole environment with its clear light." The 

 phenomenon was discovered when 



A woman, busy otherwise, had to put off the cooking of the meat [mutton] 

 which she had brought and which was still warm. She hung it up in her 

 cottage for the next day. The shadows of the night had already fallen 

 when the woman, who for some reason could not sleep (her bed, kitchen, 

 eating place all being in the same room) , anxiously cast her eyes around, 

 and about the middle of a dark night saw the meat she had hung up 

 in a dark corner shining in such a way that as far as it reached, the room 

 was filled with bright light. . . . The woman was panic-stricken, she 

 thought of the eternal fire or the spirits of a deceased person hidden in 

 the inert matter and a thousand other things. . . . Early next morning 

 the matter was related to her neighbors and a stupendous miracle con- 

 firmed. The rumor spread around and filled everybody with the same 

 eagerness to see it. They came in droves to buy and look, and while 

 normally they would have been kept away by the smell of the place, 

 now they showed up in full dress, found what they had been told, 

 and marvelled. A shining particle was brought to the illustrious prince 

 Henricus Borbonius Condaeus, governor of those provinces for the Chris- 

 tian King, and occupied his amazed observation for several hours. The 

 light that shone forth was not fiery but white, like that of stars, it did 

 not evenly pour out over the bulk of the meat but was unevenly dis- 

 tributed like jewels shining here and there. It lasted as long as putre- 

 faction and became gradually extinct. Pious witnesses of this decline 

 claimed that the light had the shape of the holy cross and gradually 

 diminished its lustre and subsided. Though I have not ascertained this, 

 there is no doubt according to the nature of light that it could have 

 been possible. 



Bartholin's explanation of the spectacle was merely that the lumi- 

 nous meat offered another confirmation of his view that light exists 

 in all things, even in water, for example the light of the sea, and is 

 to be regarded as a fifth element. The most difficult problem was 

 why, if light is universal, it only appears in the meat after a certain 

 time, " for daily experience shows that neither wood nor fish shine 

 before they become putrid." Bartholin asked (Book III, Chap. 7, 

 Problem III) : 



But how does splendor follow from putrefaction? Most authors agree 

 that from the heat produced in a putrid body a flame as well as light is 

 spontaneously kindled. . . . 



Some think that putrid things shine by night on account of the great 

 looseness of their parts. . . . Through putrefaction the humid is sepa- 

 rated from the dry, because it increases the heat that is shut up in it by 

 compression, and by this increase the humidity is taken away. This is 



