8 THE NEW SCIENCE AND ENGLISH LITERATURE 



analysis is interesting. It must be remembered that Englishmen 

 were still going to Italy for advanced scientific study, especially 

 in medicine, after the example set by Harvey. 



Bacon had held up a high standard of accuracy in The New 

 Atlantis; observe, experiment, and at last conclude, had been 

 his dictum. The ideal philosopher was to have industry, activity, 

 and an inquisitive humor, a cold, circumspect and wary disposi 

 tion in drawing conclusions. This was the theory; what was the 

 practice? An example of method from the work of one of the 

 foremost members of the Society will illustrate it. Some observa 

 tions had been made and reported to the Royal Society on "phos 

 phorescent glow" arising from rotting wood and decaying vegetable 

 and animal matter. Robert Boyle grew interested. In a letter 

 dated February 15, 1672, he reports a number of experiments car 

 ried on by himself. One night when he was retiring, his servant 

 announced to him a remarkable phenomenon in the larder. Among 

 many pieces of meat hanging there was one, a neck of veal, that 

 was luminous. Boyle, like a true philosopher, began an investi 

 gation, and, though at the time almost bedfast from a cold con 

 tracted during some recent atmospheric experiments, caused the 

 piece of meat to be conveyed to his bedroom. For several hours 

 that night he lay and watched it closely for indications of varia 

 tions in brilliancy. Then he put it under a receiver and pumped 

 out the air; "whereupon", he says, "the light was well-nigh 

 eclipsed ' '. He kept the bit of ' ' lucid flesh ' ' in his bedroom during 

 several days, convenient for observation, and manifold were the 

 experiments performed. For instance, a servant was commanded 



to run her hand over the phosphorescent surface. The hand was 



found to shine, but no heat was felt. "By great good fortune", 

 he declares, "I had a copy of the Philosophical Transactions with 

 me. I was able so to apply that flexible paper to some of the more 

 resplendent spots that I could plainly read divers consecutive let 

 ters of the title". The writer then summarizes his observations: 

 "(1) Twenty places did shine. (2) The patches were of varying 

 size. (3) It shone best where the Butcher's cleaver passed through. 

 (4) The light was varying in colour. (5) There was no heat. 

 (6) There was no stench, etc " 



No sooner had the news of these experiments been noised abroad 

 than pieces of "lucid flesh" began to appear to many. One, J. 



