134 THE PHOSPHORESCENCE OF BODIES. [MEMOIR VIII. 



tendence of those important settlements, and that an ex- 

 pedition had been despatched to ascertain the facts cor- 

 rectly. It saw the shining wonder from afar, but the 

 light diminished as the place was approached, and be- 

 coming at length invisible, the locality could not be 

 determined with certainty. 



These legends had for some time been passing into 

 discredit, when Vincenzio Cascariola, a cobbler of Bolog- 

 na in Italy, who had abandoned the mending of shoes 

 for the purpose of rinding the philosopher's stone, discov- 

 ered his celebrated phosphorus, the Bolognian stone, or, 

 as it was then designated, sun-stone (lapis Solaris). He 

 had seduced himself into the expectation that a heavy 

 mineral he had met with barium sulphate contained 

 silver, and in an attempt to melt out that precious metal 

 was astonished to see that the burned substance shone 

 like an ignited coal in the dark. This was in the year 

 1602. 



Some time afterwards a Saxon of the name of Baldwin 

 conceived the idea of obtaining the soul of the world by 

 distilling in a retort chalk which had been dissolved in 

 aqua fortis. In this extraordinary pursuit accident led 

 him to observe that the substance he was working with 

 possessed the quality of shining in the dark after it had 

 been exposed to the light of the sun. The alchemist 

 Kunckel, who relates the incident, tells us with gravity 

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

 a visit he made to Baldwin one night when that adept 

 was trying to make his phosphorus shine by the light 

 absorbed from a candle, and also from its image reflect- 

 ed by a concave mirror. In consequence of this theft, 

 Kunckel succeeded in discovering what the substance 

 was, and made known the method of its preparation. 



The special condition under which these preparations 

 shine in the dark was very, quickly detected. Isidore, 



