(_To the Editor_.)
The remarks of your Correspondent, _A. Booth_, in No. 567, of
_The Mirror_, with respect to what is generally called "Spontaneous
Combustion," are very just. My present object is to show that the term
"spontaneous" as applied to the subject in question, is incorrect. Mons.
Pierre Aimee Laire, in an "Essay on Human Combustion from the abuse of
Spirituous Liquors," states that it is the breath of the individuals
coming in contact with some flame, and being thus communicated inwardly,
that is the cause of the combustion, and therefore it cannot be
spontaneous; and he cites several instances of persons addicted to
spirituous liquors being thus burnt. Moreover, it is stated that an
anatomical lecturer, at Pisa, in the year 1597, happening to hold a
lighted candle near a subject he was dissecting, on a sudden set fire to
the vapours that came out of the stomach he had just opened. In the same
year, as Dr. Ruisch, then anatomical professor at Pisa, was dissecting a
woman, and a student holding a candle to give him light, he no sooner
opened the stomach than there issued a yellow, greenish flame. Also at
Lyons, in dissecting a woman, the stomach was no sooner opened than a
considerable flame burst out and filled the room. This has been
accounted for by experiments made by Dr. Vulpari, anatomical professor
at Bologna. He affirms that any one may see, issuing from the stomach of
an animal, a matter that burns like spirits of wine, if the upper and
lower orifices are bound fast with a strong thread, and the stomach
being thus tied, be cut above and under the ligature, and afterwards
pressed with both hands, so as to make all that it contains pass on
one side, and to produce a swelling on that part which contains the
incision, which must be held with the left hand, to prevent the
inflammable air escaping. This hand being removed, and a candle applied
about an inch from the stomach, a blueish flame will issue, which will
last nearly a minute. The circumstances of the case of Grace Pitt, to
which your Correspondent refers, perfectly coincide with the foregoing
remarks. She was accustomed for several years to go down stairs after
she was undressed, to _smoke a pipe_. Her daughter, who slept with
her, did not miss her till the morning, when on going down stairs, she
found her mother's body extended _over the hearth_, and appearing
like a block of wood burning with a glowing fire, without flame. She
was, no doubt, in the act of lighting her pipe, either at the fire or
candle, and the breath issuing from her mouth during respiration, being
impregnated with the spirits she had lately drunk, caught fire, and
communicated with the animal substance, also impregnated with spirit,
and thus the body was destroyed. Indeed, in nearly all the cases of this
nature reported, the bodies have been found on the hearth, or the
persons have been left with a candle near them. The combustion of the
human body in these cases is generally entirely inward, and it is very
seldom that any of the contiguous articles are destroyed. In the
instance mentioned above, a child's clothes on one side of the woman,
and a paper screen were untouched, and the deal floor on which she lay
was not even discoloured.
The most remarkable instance of this nature on record, is that of the
Countess Cornelia Bandi; she was in the sixty-second year of her age,
and on the day before well as usual. After she was in bed she conversed
with her maid for two or three hours, and then fell asleep. The servant
on going into her chamber in the morning, saw her lady's two feet
distant from the bed, a heap of ashes, and two legs with the stockings
on. Between the latter was part of the head, but the brains, half the
skull, and the chin, were burnt to ashes, which, when taken up in the
hand, left a greasy and offensive moisture. The bed received no damage,
and the clothes were elevated on one side, as by a person rising from
beneath them. She appears to have been burnt standing, from the skull
being found between her legs; the back was damaged more than the front
of the head, partly because of the hair, and partly because in the face
there were several openings, out of which the flames are likely to
have issued. In this account it is not stated either that she was of
intemperate habits, or that a candle was left in the room with her; but
the latter is very likely, she being advanced in years; and it may be
conjectured, that in rising from her bed, she caught fire.
One Borelli observes, that such accidents often happen to great drinkers
of wine and brandy, and that it would be of much more frequent
occurrence, were it not for the natural moisture of the body.
Notwithstanding this, your readers must not think that I am opposed to
the "cheerful draught:" I would say,
"Let each indulge his genius, each be glad,
Jocund and free, and swell the feast with mirth.
The sprightly bowl go cheerfully round.
Let none be grave, nor too severely wise;
Losses and disappointments, cares and poverty,
The rich man's insolence, and great man's scorn,
In wine be all forgotten."--ROWE.
_St. Pancras._