THE 

 LONDON, EDINBURGH axd DUBLIN 



PHILOSOPHICAL MAGAZINE 



AND 



JOURNAL OF SCIENCE. 



[FOURTH SERIES.] 



FEBRUARY 1851. 



XII. On the Phosphorescence of Bodies. i?yJoHN W. DrxVPER, 

 M.D., Professor of Chemistry and Physiology in the University 

 of New York^. 



A BELIEF in the existence of the Carbuncle, a stone supposed 

 "'^^ to have the property of shining in the dark, appears to 

 have been current from the very infancy of chemistry. It gave 

 rise to many legends among the alchemists ; and early travellers 

 relate marvellous stories respecting self-shining mountains and 

 gems. Thus, it was said, that the king of Pegu wore a carbuncle 

 so brilliant, that if any of his subjects looked upon him in the 

 dark, his countenance seemed as though it was irradiated by the 

 sun ; and that, in some part of North America, there was a moun- 

 tain which illuminated the country for m.any miles, and served 

 by its rays to guide the Indians at night. These traditions were 

 passing into discredit, when Vincenzio Cascuriola, a shoemaker, 

 discovered his celebrated phosphorus — the Bolognian stone ; or, 

 as it was then designated, sunstone {lapis Solaris). This was in 

 the year 1602. 



Some time afterwards, a Saxon, by the name of Baldwin, con- 

 ceived the idea of obtaining the soul of the world by distilling 

 in a retort chalk which had been dissolved in aquafortis. In 

 this extraordinary pursuit, accident led him to observe that the 

 substance he was working vdi\\ possessed the quality of shining 

 in the dark after it had been exposed to the light of the sun. 

 The alchemi.st Kunkel, who relates the incident, tells us with 

 gravity how he stole a piece of this substance, on the occasion of 

 a visit which he made to Baldwin one night when he was trying 

 to make his phosjjhorus shine by the light absorbed from a 

 candle, and also from its image reiiected by a concave mirror. 



* CommunioatcJ by the Author. 

 Phil. Mag. S. 4. Vol. 1 . No. 2. Feb. 1851. G 



