DEAD ANIMAL MATTER. 107 



vividness of the light, it did not yield the least 

 degree of heat appreciable either to the touch or 

 by the thermometer. 



Boyle was often disappointed in his experiments 

 made with a view of obtaining shining flesh at 

 will. The luminous neck of veal was observed on 

 the 15th of February, 1672, by one of his servants. 

 Suspecting that the state of the atmosphere had 

 something to do with it, he carefully noticed that 

 the wind was south-west and blustering, the air 

 hot for the season, the moon past its last quarter, 

 and the mercury in the barometer at 29-^ inches. 



The first distinct account that I meet with of 

 light proceeding from putrescent flesh is that 

 which is given by Fabricio d'Acquapendente, who 

 says that when three Eoman youths residing at 

 Padua had bought a lamb and had eaten part of 

 it on Easter-day, 1592, several pieces of the re- 

 mainder which they kept till the day following 

 shone like so many candles when viewed in the 

 dark. Part of this luminous flesh was sent to Fa- 

 bricio d'Acquapendente, who was then Professor 

 of Anatomy in Padua. He observed that both the 

 lean and the fat shone with a white kind of light, 

 and that some pieces of kid's flesh which had lain 

 in contact with it were luminous, as well as the 

 fingers of the persons who touched it. Those 

 parts shone most which were soft to the touch, 

 and which appeared more or less transhicid when 

 held before a lighted candle. 



