On the Spontaneous Combustion of the Human Body. 167 



result of several experiments, in which he in vain tried to ren- 

 der ox-flesh inflammable by steeping it for several months in 

 brandy, and even in alcohol and ether. 



Another explanation has been proposed. Dr Marc, and with 

 him several other physicians, from the development of hydro- 

 gen gas which takes place in greater or less quantity in the in- 

 testines, have been led to imagine that a similar development 

 may take place in other parts of the body, and that the gas 

 might take fire on the approach of a burning body, or by an 

 electrical action produced by the electric fluid, which might be 

 developed in the individuals thus burnt. According to this 

 theory, MM. Lecat, Kopp, and Marc, suppose, in subjects af- 

 fected by spontaneous combustion, 1. An idio-electric state; % 

 The development of hydrogen gas ; 3. Its accumulation in the 

 cellular tissue. 



This latter explanation would appear to be confirmed by a 

 very curious observation of M, Bailly's. That physician, on 

 opening, in the presence of twenty pupils, a dead body, over the 

 whole of which there was an emphysema, which was greater in 

 the lower extremities than any where else, remarked, that, when- 

 ever a longitudinal incision was made, a gas escaped, which 

 burned with a blue flame. The puncture of the abdomen yield- 

 ed a stream of it more than six inches high. What was very re- 

 markable, was, that the gases contained in the intestines, so far 

 from increasing the flame, extinguished it. 



M. Julia Fontenelle, for reasons similar to those which in- 

 duced him to reject the first hypothesis, is of opinion that the 

 presence of hydrogen gas cannot be admitted as the cause of 

 spontaneous combustion. He founds this opinion more particu- 

 larly upon experiments in which he in vain tried to render very 

 thin slices of flesh combustible, by keeping them for three days 

 immersed in pure hydrogen gas, in percarburetted hydrogen 

 gas, and in oxygen gas. 



Lastly, He considers the opinion equally untenable, that spon- 

 taneous combustion of the human body is owing to a combina- 

 tion of animal matter with the oxygen of the air, whatever may 

 be the alterations which this matter may undergo : 1. Because 

 a sufficient temperature is not developed ; 2. Because, admitting 

 this combustion as real, the residuum would be a charcoal, which 



