Putrefaction Phosphorescent
Scientific Illustrations
Proverbs 26:23
Burning lips and a wicked heart are like a potsherd covered with silver dross.


The illuminating power of phosphorus appears due to an extremely slow chemical reaction, and it is affirmed that vegetable and animal substances may grow phosphorescent at a certain stage of decomposition, or even without any appearance of putrefaction. Accredited authorities cite a host of examples of fresh or stale meats which have been seen to shine during the night with a more or less vivid clearness. Fish, and especially salt-water fish, when no longer fresh, acquire a phosphorescence which brightens during the first period, of putrefaction. Leave for two or three days dead saltwater fish in non-luminous sea-water; at the end of that time the water will be covered with a thin pellicle of fatty matter, and will soon become phosphorescent. But it is not only in material nature that we thus find brightness in combination with impurity. Genius itself has been found shining amidst moral putrefaction.

(Scientific Illustrations.)



Parallel Verses
KJV: Burning lips and a wicked heart are like a potsherd covered with silver dross.

WEB: Like silver dross on an earthen vessel are the lips of a fervent one with an evil heart.




On Guard
Top of Page
Top of Page