46 NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY OF DUBLIN 



or to clothes rubbed against them, and is not extinguished by water ; 

 it is diminished if the animal be placed in the receiver of an air pump, 

 and the air exhausted, and is revived and increased in brilliancy by 

 the re-admission of air into the exhausted receiver. A portion of a 

 luminous whiting which the Hon. R. Boyle kept in an exhausted 

 receiver for forty-eight hours, by degrees wholly lost its light, but 

 recovered it again as soon as the air was restored.* 



Human flesh has been observed to be phosphorescent after death, 

 and also before death ; the phosphorescence after death, as in the case 

 of the phenomenon in the dead bodies of the lower animals, does not 

 appear to have any connexion with the advanced stages of decom- 

 position, nor has it, as far as I am aware, been observed in human 

 flesh in that condition. Dr. Hart describes the luminous condition of 

 human flesh as observed by himself, and remarks that the phenomenon 

 has been noticed by Drs. Harrison, Jacob, and Houston. f " Having had 

 occasion to enter the dissecting-room of the Park-street School of Medi- 

 cine, on a dark, damp night in 1827, my attention was attracted by a re- 

 markably luminous appearance of the subjects on the tables, similar to 

 that which fishes and other marine animals exhibit in the dark. The 

 degree of illumination was sufficient to render the forms of the bodies, 

 as well as those of muscles and other dissected parts, almost as distinct 

 as in the daylight. This luminosity was communicated to my fingers 

 from contact with the dead bodies, from any part of which it could be 

 removed by scraping it, or wiping it with a towel. I observed that 

 the surfaces of the dissected muscles were brighter than any other 

 parts. Although I have repeatedly visited the dissecting-room since, 

 at all hours of the night, and at all seasons of the year, I have never 

 since been able to discover a similar luminous appearance." I may 

 observe that, having long known of this observation of Dr. Hart, I 

 have taken many and various opportunities of trying to see something 

 similar myself, but have so far not been successful. The bodies of 

 those who have taken phosphorus before death, or who have died 

 from its effects as a poison, emit in the dark, from the various orifices, 

 a luminous vapour so characteristic as to be regarded as pathognomonic 

 of the poison. It does not appear that any experiments have as yet 

 been made upon the degree and duration of the phosphorescence of the 

 flesh in such cases, although the opportunites for doing so are not few, 

 as it appears that at present phosphorus is the popular toxic agent 

 upon the Continent ; and Tardieu informs us that in criminal statistics 

 phosphorus takes the first rank as a fashionable poison. Although in 

 the case of post mortem phosphorescence, it is so frequently asserted 

 that light is emitted from flesh, fowl, fish, and other meat, as that 

 of lobsters, which is perfectly fresh, yet this assertion must be taken 

 in a qualified sense. It cannot be denied that incipient decomposition 



* "Phil. Trans.," 1667, vol. ii., p. 581. 

 f Sir H. Marsh's Essay, p. 20. 



