112 ANIMAL AND VEGETABLE PHOSPHORI. 



light come from the flesh, as to illuminate all tin: place where it 

 hung. A part of this luminous flesh was carried as a curiosity to 

 Henry Bourbon, duke of Conde, the governor of the place, who 

 viewed it for several hours uith the greatest astonishment. 



This light was observed to be whitish ; and not to cover the 

 whole surface of the flesh, but certain parts only, as if gems of un- 

 equal splendour had been scattered over it. This flesh was kept 

 till it began to putrify, when the light vanished ; which, as some 

 religious people fancied, it did in the form of a cross. 



Boyle tried the effect of his air-pump upon these luminous sub- 

 stances ; and found that the light of rotten wood was extinguished 

 in vacuo, and revived again on the admission of the air. even after 

 a long continuance in vacuo ; but the extinguishing of this light was 

 not so complete immediately upon exhausting the receiver, as some 

 little time afterwards. He could not perceive, however, that the 

 light of rotteu wood was increased in condensed air ; but this, he 

 imagined, might arise from his not being able to judge very well of 

 the degree of light, through so thick and cloudy a glass vessel as he 

 then made use of ; but we find that the light of a shining fish, which 

 was put into a condensing engine before the Royal Society, in 

 1668, was rendered more vivid by that means. The principal of 

 Mr. Boyle's experiments were made in October, 1667. 



This philosopher attended to a great variety of circumstances 

 relating to this curious phenomenon. Among other things, he ob. 

 served, that change of air was not necessary to the maintenance of 

 this light ; for it continued a long time when a piece of the wood 

 was put into a very small glass hermetically sealed, and it made no 

 difference when this tube which contained the wood was put into an 

 exhaused receiver. This he also observed with respect to a lumi. 

 nous fish, which he put into water, and placed in the same circuit), 

 stances. He also found, that the light of shining fishes had other 

 properties in common with that of shining wood ; but the latter, he 

 says, was presently quenched with water, spirit of wine, a great 

 variety of saline mixtures, and other fluids. Water, however, did 

 not quench all the light of some shining veal on which he tried it f 

 though spirit of wine destroyed its virtue presently. 



Mr. Boyle's observation of light proceeding from flesh. meat was 

 quite casual. On the 15th of February, 1662, one of bis servants 

 was greatly alarmed with the shining of some veal, which had been 

 kept a few days, but had no bad smell, and was in a state very pro- 



