476 History of Luminescence 



vividly from a cupboard, to which they were removed." Boyle him- 

 self remarked in a discourse ^^ at the Royal Society in 1681 that of 

 all fishy substances, the eggs of lobsters which have been boiled 

 shone the brightest. 



Luminous Eggs and Other Unusual Things 



In addition to wood and meat, purchased in the market, many 

 unusual organic materials were observed to shine. Redi (1687) not 

 only knew of the luminescence of decaying fish and squid, but he 

 saw a putrifying serpent continue to shine in darkness for four 

 nights. The light then disappeared little by little.^^ 



Robert Plot's (1686) story of the turf or peat in Oxfordshire, 

 which looked like fire when broken by horses' hoofs, might be due 

 to a luminous fungal mycelium, biu the recent observations of A. 

 Harker (1888) , as described in Chapter XVI on Bioluminescence, 

 indicate that the light actually came from Itiminous earthworms. 



Perhaps the most extraordinary records are those which have to 

 do with reptiles or hen's eggs. The reptile egg story appears to 

 have originated in the seventeenth century. Paulo Boccone (1684) , 

 among other luminous phenomena, had recorded in his Osservazioni 

 Naturali (1684: 224) the occurrence of limiinous lizard eggs seen 

 by Coimt Marsigli, an observation referred to by Heinrich (1815) , 

 Ehrenberg (1834), Heller (1853), and others. 



Another and a particularly convincing accoimt was published in 

 1774 by Gottfried August Gruendler, a painter and etcher in Halle. 

 Gruendler found five lizards' eggs which he took home, wishing to 

 observe the young lizards on hatching. That night, to his surprise, 

 he observed that three of them showed luminous patches, like a 

 glowworm, but two were dark. Realizing that movement generated 

 electricity, he tried shaking the dark eggs in his hand, and found 

 that they also started to luminesce but soon ceased. The three lumi- 

 nous eggs continued bright throughout the night biU were dark 

 the following night. On cutting into the leathery shell he found 

 " eine triibe unci zahe Feuchtigkeit," but he does not mention 

 whether the material was luminescent. The article was published 

 in Der Naturjorscher (Stuck 3: 218-221) in the hope that others 

 might have observed the same phenomenon and report on it. 



his door, not the usual knocker but an image of Marley's face. " It was not in 

 impenetrable shadow as the other objects in the yard were, but had a dismal light 

 about it, like a bad lobster in a dark cellar." Lobsters were also seen to luminesce 

 by Home (1869). 



" T. Birch, History of the Royal Society 2: 70. 



^^ De animaculis vivis quae in corporibus animalium vivum reperiuntur observationes 

 {Opuscularum pars tertia 3: 15, 1672) and Osservazioni di Napoli, 10-11, 1687. 



