On the Spontaneous Combustion of the Human Body. 165 



which they are capable of exciting from their very nature, they 

 afford a new example of one of those phenomena, the existence 

 of which has, in these later times, been questioned, solely be- 

 cause, while they are very singular and difficult to be accounted 

 for, they are also of such rare occurrence, that they can only be 

 authenticated by an aggregate mass of evidence, which evidence, 

 although sufficient to induce conviction, may always be reject- 

 ed by those who are prejudiced, or who do not give themselves 

 the trouble of duly estimating their value. 



Are there really spontaneous combustions of the human body? 

 Such is the first question which the author examines, and he re- 

 solves it by the affirmative. Fifteen observations of spontane- 

 ous combustions, which he successively relates, enable him not 

 only to establish the incontestible reality of the phenomenon, 

 but also to make known the principal circumstances which ac- 

 company its manifestation. In summing up these circumstan- 

 ces, he remarks : 



1. That persons, who have been destroyed by spontaneous 

 combustion, have, for the most part, been immoderately addict- 

 ed to the use of spirituous liquors. 



% That this combustion is almost always general, but that it 

 may be only partial. 



3. That it is much rarer in men than in women, and that the 

 women in which it has been manifested, have almost all been 

 aged ; one woman only was seventeen years of age, and in her 

 the combustion was but partial. 



4. That the body and viscera have always been burnt, while 

 the feet, the hands, and the top of the head, have almost always 

 escaped. 



5. Although it is demonstrated that several loads of wood are 

 necessary for reducing a dead body to ashes by ordinary com- 

 bustion, incineration is effected in spontaneous combustions with*, 

 out the most combustible objects placed in the vicinity being 

 burnt. In one case there was a very singular coincidence of 

 two persons being consumed at the same time, in the same apart- 

 ment, without the apartment or the furniture being burnt. 



6. It is not demonstrated that the presence of a burning 

 body is necessary for producing spontaneous combustion of the 

 "human body ; on the contrary there is every reason to believe 

 the reverse. 



