Glowing ghoul or chemical tool? The toxic chemistry behind Victorian séances

Victorian Ghosts Used to Glow in the Dark. The Secret Was a Deadly Chemical

Chemistry and the supernatural go hand in hand.

Glowing ghoul or chemical tool? The toxic chemistry behind Victorian séances

A Victorian-era séance. (Pearson's Magazine, 1910)In November 1857, during a séance in Jersey City, the medium Leah Brown claimed her body produced luminous particles. So intense was the luminosity emanating from her, she recalled in her memoir, that it almost burned her hands. She rinsed her hands under a tap and then pushed them into the damp earth outside. The following evening, luminous particles were discovered in the soil where she’d press…