produced hy the Lfe cf Spirduous Liqtiors. 135 



furprifcd that the furniture had fufiaincd fo little injiiry. The 

 fide of the bed which was next to the chimney had fuftcred 

 the nioft ; the wood of it was (lightly burnt ; but the fcathar- 

 hcd, the clothes, and covering, were fafe. I entered the 

 apartment about two hours after it had been opened, and 

 obferved that the walls and every thing in it were blackened; 

 that it was filled with a very difagreeable vapour ; but that 

 nothing except the body exhibited any ftrong traces of fire." 



Tills inftance has great fimilarity to that related by Vicqr- 

 d'Azyr in the Ericychpedie Methodigue, imder the head. 

 Pathologic Anatomy of Man. A woman, about fifty years 

 of age, who indulged to excefs in fpirituous liquors, and got 

 drunk cverv day before flie went to bed, w^as found entirely 

 burnt, and reduced to a(hes. Some of the ofleous parts only 

 were left, but the furniture of the apartment had fuffered 

 very little damage. Vicq-d'Azyr, inftead of difbclkving this 

 phenomenon, adds, that there have been many other in- 

 fcances of the like kind. 



We find alfo a circumftance of this kind in a work en- 

 titled, Asia Mcdka et pbilofophka Hafn'ienjia ; and in the 

 work of Henry Bohanfer, entitled, Le nouveau phofphore en^ 

 Jiamme. A woman at Paris, who had been accuftomed, for 

 ihree years, to drink fpirit of wine to fuch a degree that (he 

 ufed no other liquor, was one day found entirely reduced to 

 afhes, except the (kuU and extremities of the fingers. 



7'he Tranfaftions of the Royal Society of London prefent 

 alfo an inflance of human combuftion no lefs extraordinary : 

 It was mentioned at the time it happened in all the journals; 

 it was then attefted by a great number of eye-witnefles, andf 

 became the fubjeft of many learned difcuflions. Three ac- 

 counts of this event, by different authors, all nearly coincide. 

 The fad is related as follows : — " Grace Pitt, the wife of a 

 fifhmonger of the parifli of St. Clement, Ipfwicli, aged about 

 fixty, had contrafted a habit, which (lie continued for feverai 

 years, of coming down every night from her bed-room, hpir 

 drcflfed, to fmoke a pipe. On the night of the 9th of April 

 1744, flie got up from bed as ufual. Her daughter, who 

 flept with lier, did not perceive (lie was abfcnt till next 

 inorning whei* (lie awoke, foon after vyhich (lie put on her 



dothcs, 



