Protection of Persons from Fire. iit 
Cuar. XI.—On the advantages which the foregoing processes may 
be of to insurance companies against losses by fire. 
Marine insurances are of much longer standing than those against 
fire. It was. not until 1714, that the English began to provide 
against these losses ; but they soon found imitators on some parts of 
the continent. Italy appears to have been very slow in admitting 
these economical institutions. In 1819, they were encouraged in the 
Italian states of Austria by an imperial circular. A company was 
formed at Trieste in 1824, and another at Milan in 1825. The king 
of Sardinia followed this example, and a company was established at 
Turin in 1828, j 
The author proposes that insurance companies should extend their 
risks to personal security. By providing companies with a certain 
number of suits of the defensive armor, and offering high rewards to 
those who, by their courage and dexterity, should rescue human be- 
ngs from the devouring element, they would usefully and honorably 
extend the sphere of their influence. 
The remainder of this chapter is chiefly occupied with remarks 
upon the imperfect operation of insurance in Italy. In Bologna, a 
Se store-house was burned three years ago, and great loss sus- 
tained for want of the means of unbarricading a door, through which 
4 large portion of the goods might have been saved. A person 
 Nhay with the Aldini armor, would easily have accomplished this 
ject. 
Cuar. XI1.—General considerations on the causes of fires, and the 
means of preventing the disasters which they produce. 
The atmosphere (says the author) may be heated so far as to kin- 
dle very combustible materials, and which in their turn set fire to oth- 
€f matters more abundant, which burn only at a higher temperature. 
Minister Sommer, at Koningsburg, made many experiments to 
demonstrate this fact, and to ascertain the various circumstances of 
ty and he proved that conflagrations may occur without either neghi- 
sence or crime. Cloth, wool, cotton, hemp, &c., which have been 
charged with oil, will undergo spontaneous combustion. This fact 
has been long known. The chronicles of Villani inform us that a 
fite took place at Florence in 1344, from the spontaneous heat of 
“me oiled cloth, which burned eighteen houses and shops. ‘These 
