502 History of Luminescence 



Boreham, " admitted to the Webb-street School of Anatomy and 

 Medecine, Borough," which showed luminescence on the interior 

 and exterior of the thorax. The luminosity remained for several 

 days and gradually extended to other parts, chiefly along bones and 

 tendons, but not to the viscera of the chest or abdomen. The lumi- 

 nous material could be scraped off the flesh but appeared to pene- 

 trate bone rather deeply, as considerable scraping was necessary to 

 remove it. The authors remark that the phenomenon had never 

 been observed before (except in a corpse, Tomkins, admitted a few 

 days previously, whose thigh was luminous) , although the attendant 

 had served at the school since 1812. Several persons had observed 

 luminescence on " birds when they had been hanging for some 

 time " or on cats and dogs in ditches, or on veal. " The common 

 opinion with these individuals with respect to the cause, is, that the 

 meat had been struck by lightning, it having generally been observed 

 in the summer months." 



The first experiment of the Coopers was to smear some of the 

 luminous material on other bodies, which soon became luminescent 

 also, from which they concluded that the light of Boreham had 

 probably come from Tomkins, whose thigh was slightly luminous. 

 Under the microscope (900 magnification) " luminosity appeared to 

 be emitted from an oily matter." They saw " small globules darting 

 from one side to the other and occasionally stemming the current 

 for a considerable distance. . . . Mr. Bowerbank observed a small 

 thread-like body dart across the field of the microscope, which he 

 immediately recognized as one of those bodies (Vibriones) which 

 are so abundantly seen upon macerating animal matter, such as a 

 mouse, in water for a length of time." They were convinced that no 

 such animal as Monas existed in the luminous matter, but there 

 were globules or " molecules " that appeared to be one hundred 

 thousandths of an inch in diameter and hence one thousand times 

 smaller than the minute animals known to be responsible for the 

 phosphoresence of the sea. Since the Coopers observed similar move- 

 ments of the small globules in a gamboge suspension, ^^ they were not 

 sure that anything living existed in the slime from the luminous 

 corposes. However, the evidence indicates that they really did 

 observe luminous bacteria under the microscope. 



The Coopers also showed that the light of the material disap- 

 peared in a vacuum but returned in air, that it would last only 

 ten to fifteen minutes under water or milk but three days in oil, 

 that it was extinguished by heat, alcohol, acid, and other chemicals, 



^^ Gamboge particles are in Brownian movement, whereas luminous bacteria are 

 self-motile. 



