S86 Mcn/Irous Serpent, 



tartar, and other falls, which fliine at the moment when 

 they cryftallife. This phenomenon is exhibited aifo by the 

 water of the fea when it becomes phofphoric, the eye when 

 fuddenly ftruck, fugarwhen pounded*, cream of tartar, alum 

 and borax when ilruck. Among mineral bodies, quartz in 

 particular contains a great deal of accumulated light : to this 

 head belongs the luminous appearance of certain plants. 



Light is accumulated in a vifible ftate in ihe fo-called 

 light magnets, which, when they have been expofed for a 

 confiderable time to the light, imbibe a certain quantity of 

 it, and then throw it out in the dark. Of thefe bodies, thofe 

 which dcferve the firll place are the diamond, blende, and 

 the carbuncle. Lapis lazuli throws out in the dark a great 

 quantity of light which it imbibes in the day-time. The 

 Bologna phofphorus, which is nothing elfe than fulphat 

 of barytes, does not become luminous in the dark till it has 

 been expofed for fome minutes to the light of the fun; tlie 

 cafe is tiie fame with nitrat of lime. Bruguateili faw a dia- 

 mond become luminous in the dark after it had been expolcd 

 to the light of a candle. Animal and vegetable matters, 

 putrid fi(h, rotten wood, &c, ftiine in this manner; alio iu-r 

 dividual parts of animals, the eyes of the hyjena and cats, 

 the body of the glow-worm, &c. 



MONSTROUS SERPK?,'T. 



The following article is copied from the Bombay Courier, 

 of Auguft^tft, 1799: 



" A letter from Ambovna, received within thefe few davs, 

 crives the following account of an enormous fnake, which 

 made its appearance at a place called Golontala, in the ifland 

 of Celebes. A Malay prow making for that port, and finding 

 flie cOuid not enter it before dark, came to anchor clofe in 

 ihore for the night. One of the crew went on fliore in quell 

 of bctcl-nnt in the woods, and on his return lay down, as 

 is fuppofed, to fleep on the beach ; a common cuftom with 

 people of that defcription. In the courfe of the night hii 



* When a perfon champs fine fiigar bctsvcen the teeth in the dark, the 

 mouth appe^s to be full of (lie 



comrades 



