Spontantem Ccml/u/lion in the human Species. 305 



purpofe of eftiitiating their, influence on' public happinefs — are difpofed to confider fuch re- 

 fearchcs, as are not direfled towards an objedl immediately related to fome new enjoyment 

 as a matter of ^^ain curiofity. What would have been the aftonifhment of fuch men, if they 

 had been told that refearches into the nature of the diamond fliould one day afford truths 

 leading to the happieft ameliorations in the pradtice of the moft familiar arts,. and the ufe of 

 the commoneft combuftibles. Such, however, are the confequences which are promifed by 

 our better knowledge of the eflential coaly principle in its different ftates. 



VI. 



Oh the apparently fpontaheous Comhujllon of living Individuals of the human Species. 



By CiT. Lair.* 



W, 



E find accounts, in feveral works, of the combuftion of humin individuals, which ap- 

 pear to be fpontaneous. They have been reduced, in fhort, to a mafs of pulverulent fatty 

 matter, refembling aflies. Thefe accidents have been accompanied by phenomena fimikr to 

 thofe which are obferved in the procefs of combuftion, and this deflruflion has not been 

 produced by the combuftion of the furrounding bodies. 



The author of this memoir has collefled all the circumftances of this nature which ha- 

 has found difperfcd in different books, and has taken care to reject thofe which did not ap-' 

 pear to him to be' fupported by refpedable teftimony. 



Thefe narratives are nine in number, taken from the Adls of Copenhagen, 1 692 ; from 

 the Annual Regifter, 1763 and 1775; Philofophical Tranfadions, 17445 Obfervations 

 of Lecat, in the years i725and 1749J and from'the Journal of Medicine for 1779 and 1783. 



To thefe the author has added fome others, related by perfons ftill living at Caen, and on 

 the teftimony of a furgeon of that town, who drew up a verbal procefs, containing an account 

 of the circumftances of an event of this kind. 



Several members of the fociety, who were prcfent at the reading of this memoir, and had 

 travelled in the North, had frequently heard fuch accidents mentioned. Do^or Swediaur 

 related fome iriftances of porters atWarfaw, who, having drank abundantly of malt fpirits, k\\ 

 down in the ftreet, with the fmoke iffuing out of their mouths ; and the people came to their 

 affiftance, faying that they would take fire; to prevent which they made them drink a great 

 quantity of milk, or ufed a more fmgular expedient, by caufmg them to fwallow urine imme- 

 diately on its evacuation. 



However difficult it may be to give credit to fuch narratives, it is equally difficult to reject 

 them'entirely without refuftng to admit the numerous teftinionies of men for the moft part 

 worthy of credit, or attributing to them criminal viev^rs; when we refled on the difficulty of 



• Communicated to the Philomatic Society at Paris, and infertedin the BaUetin.Thermidur, an. 5. No. 29. 



reducing 



