13S On the Combujlion of the Human Bodyy 



which was only a Utile fcorched ; one leg only, and the two 

 hands, detached themfelves from the reft of the bones. It 

 is not known* whether her clothes had caught fire by ap- 

 proaching the grate. The lady was in the fame place in 

 which fhe fat every day ; there was no extraordinary fire, and 

 fhe had not fallen. What makes me fufpeft that the ufe 

 of fpirits might have produced this efFeft is, that I have been 

 afliired, that at the gate of Dinan an accident of the like kind 

 happened to another woman under fimilar circumftances." 



To thefe inftances, which I have multiplied to ftrengthen 

 the evidence, I (hall add two other fa<Sls, of the fame kind, 

 publiflied in the Journal de Medicine*. The firft took place 

 at Aix, in Provence, and is thus related by Muraire, a fur- 

 geon: — "In the month of February 1779, Mary JaufFret, 

 widow of Nicholas Gravier, flioemaker, of a fmall fize, exr 

 ceedingly corpulent, and addifted to drinking, having been 

 burnt in her apartment, M. Rocas, my colleague, who was 

 commiffioned to make a report refpefting the remains of her 

 body, found only a mafs of afhes, and a hw bones, calcined 

 in fuch a manner that on the leaft preflTure they were reduced 

 to duft. The bones of the cranium, one hand, and a foot, 

 had in part efcaped the a6tion of the fire. Near thefe re- 

 mains ftood a table untouched, and under the table a fmall 

 wooden ftove, the grating of which, having been long burnt, 

 afforded an aperture, through which, it is probable, the fire 

 that occafioned the melancholy accident had been commu- 

 nicated : one chair, which ftood too near the flames, had the 

 feat and fore-feet burnt. In other relpefts, there was no 

 appearance of fire either in the chimney or the apartment ; 

 fo that, except the fore-part of the chair, it appears to me 

 that no other combuftible matter contributed to this fpeedy 

 incineration, which was effected in the fpace of feven or 

 eight hours." 



The other inftance, mentioned in the Journal de Medi- 

 cine %, took place at Caen, and is thus related by Merille, a 

 furgeon of that city, ftill alive : — " Being requefted, on the 

 3d of June 1782, by the king's officers, to draw up a report 

 vf the ftate in which I found Maderaoifelle THuars^, who 



• Vol- LIX. p.i|4o. t Vol- LIX. p. 140. 



