NATURAL HISTORY. 
Observutions on Spontaneous Inflam- 
mation ; with a particular Ac- 
count of that which happened on 
board a Russian Frigate in the 
Year 1781 ; and of the Experi- 
ments made in order to ascertain 
the Cause of it. Ina Letter to 
the Editors, from the Reverend 
William Tooke, F. R. S. Member 
of the Imperial Academy of Sci- 
ences at St. Petersburgh, jc. From 
the Repertory of Arts and Manu- 
factures. 
HE following observations on 
spontaneous inflammations 
Were drawn up, a few years ago, 
in Russia; they were suggested by 
an accident which happened on- 
board a frigate lying in the harbour 
of Cronstadt. I was then at Cron- 
stadt, and consequently had an op- 
portunity of procuring an accu- 
rate account, not only of the 
accident itself, but also of the ex- 
periments made to ascertain the 
~cause of it. If you think proper to 
add them to the accounts of spon- 
taneous inflammations which you 
have already published, you are at 
liberty to do so. 
The explication of the causes of 
spontaneous inflammations, in cer- 
tain substances and. compositions, 
must ever be an object of conse- 
quence to the magistracy; as, by 
discovering the causes of such phe~ 
nomena, the suspicion of felonious 
practices in setting fire to buildings 
may fre§uently be avoided, and 
many an innocent person saved from 
capital punishment. A bare at- 
tempt to lessen the number of 
victims, that may possibly bedoomed 
to bleed at the bar of mistaken 
justice, can never be thought either 
frivolous or impertinent. 
J intentionally pass over the pyro- 
4 
table kingdoms ; 
[*77 
phori, at present so well known to 
chymists, prepared from alum, &c, 
as not properly belonging to my de- 
sign, though deserving of notice in 
explaining the causes of spontane- 
ous inflammation ; nor shall I say 
any thing of those inflammatiohs 
that happen in the mineral king- 
dom, in coal-mines, alum-pits, &c.. 
as they are already sufficiently 
known, and their causes have often 
been discussed. 
Of incomparably more impor- 
tance, and far Jess known, are the 
spontaneous inflammations of subs; 
stances from the animal and’ vege- 
and these are 
what I, design here briefly to bring 
together : as I firmly believe, that. 
a more extensive publication of 
these phenomena may prove. of 
general utility to mankind, by 
lessening the dangers to which they 
are, exposed. 
A recent instance will serve to 
elucidate what I now advance. A 
person of the name of Ride, at 
that timean apothecary at Bautzen, 
had prepared a pyrophorus from 
rye-bran andalum. Not long after 
he had made the discovery, there 
broke out, in the next village of 
Nauslitz, a great fire, which did 
much mischief, and was said to 
have been occasioned by the treat~ 
ing of a sick cowinthe cow-house. 
Mr. Riide knew that the country- 
men were used to lay an applica- 
tion of parched rye-bran to their 
cattle, for curing the thick neck; he 
knew also, that alum and rye-bran, 
by a proper process, yielded a pyro- 
phorus ;' and now he wished to try 
whether parched rye-bran alone 
would have the same effect. Ac- 
cordingly, he roasted a quantity of 
rye-bran by the fire, till if had ac- 
quired the colour of roasted coffee. 
This 
