an epithet applied to any thing that shines or emits light.

LUMINOUS Emanations have been observed from human bodies, as also from those of brutes. The light arising from currying a horse, or from rubbing a cat's back, are known to most. Instances of a like kind have been known on combing a woman's head. Bartholin gives us an account, which he entitles mulier splendens, of a lady in Italy whose body would shine whenever slightly touched with a piece of linen. These effluvia of animal bodies have many properties in common with those produced from glass; such as their being lucid, their snapping, and their not being excited without some degree of friction; and are undoubtedly electrical, as a cat's back has been found strongly electrical when stroaked. See ELECTRICITY and LIGHT.