in the different Kinds of Gas, and in Fluids. 1 9 



trease is produced by many substances without combustion, 

 or without being exactly phosphorus. The above theory 

 respecting this kuninous appearance he thiixks not altoge- 

 ther improbable, because the wood at the period when it 

 begins to be luminous has, for the most part, lost its re- 

 sinous particles, and therefore contains little hydrogen or 

 carbon. Pie is of opmion also that rotten wood approaches 

 nearer to phosphorescence the more it loses its inflammable 

 matter, and that on this depends its susceptibility of ab- 

 sorbing and retaining light. According to Carradori's 

 meaning, however, there is a greater difference between 

 this natural phosphorus and that of Kunckel. 



Humboldt *, that assiduous and philosophic observer, 

 deduces from his well known experiments that the lumi- 

 nous appearance of rotten wood in general is possible only 

 during its contact with oxygen gas; and that the wood, 

 which loses its phosphorescence in the non-respirable gases, 

 acquires it again immediately by the access of new oxygen 

 gas. 



In the last place, M. Gartner t, in consequence of his 

 interesting experiments on the luminous appearance of rot^ 

 ten wood, considers a certain degree of moisture as a ne- 

 cessary condition, and is of opinion that oxygen gas is less 

 essential, even though the phosphorescence is promoted by 

 it. But as this phsenomenon differs so much from all the 

 hitherto known processes of combustion accompanied with 

 an extrication of light, he proposes this question : May not 

 this phsenomenon have more relation to the process of ani- 

 mal respiration than to real combustion ? Or whether the 

 luminous appearance of wood be not produced by the union 

 of phosphorus and carbon in a certain proportion still un- 

 known to us } But even if it should be admitted that 

 during the process of emitting light water is decomposed, 

 it is difficult, according to his opinion, to determine what 

 becomes of the liberated hydrogen. M. Gartner therefore 

 considers it as still impossible to give a satisfactory explana- 

 tion of the phainomena which occur during this process. 



In consequence of the numerous experiments which I 

 have made for several years past on Kunckel's phosphorus 

 in the different kinds of gas, the most remarkable of which 

 I have already communicated to the public \n a particular 

 treatise, I was desirous to see what phtenomena would be 

 exhibited in them by phosphoie^cent wood, and also in 



• See Vcrsuche iibtr di Clitmischc zerlcgung ties Luftkiciscs ; ix uber 

 Jic cnibindun^ dts Lictites, p. 209. 



^ Sec hi» Eisay in Scherer's Journal dcr Chemie, vgl. iii. part i. 



^ 2 Other 



