166 Spontaneous Combustion. 
heat was found in no other portion of them. Those at the bot- 
tom were at least one year old, and my family having been ab- 
sent during the summer, none had been added, excepting a very 
small quantity on the surface a few days previous, for more than 
three months. 
The burning of boxes and casks in which ashes are very com- 
monly kept, is usually, perhaps generally with truth, attributed 
to the burning coals taken up with the ashes. Suspecting this 
cause, I searched thoroughly for ignited coals among the heated 
ashes in the cart and also in the arch, and found no vestige of 
coals in any state. It is not probable that any small quantity of 
ashes removed at one time from the stoves, even if hot and min- 
gled with live coals, and added to a heap on its surface as usual, 
should have retained its heat till covered by succeeding additions, 
and this heat have remained so pent up for a year, and not rather 
have been conducted to the whole mass, and thus entirely dissi- 
pated. Besides, the combustion of the wood in my stoves is very 
complete—the coals are consumed, and the ashes are commonly 
removed before making the fire in the morning, and at considera- 
ble intervals ; so that, though I made no examination, it seems 
there could have been but an extremely small portion of combus- 
tible vegetable matter remaining unconsumed. The floor of the 
arch and cellar is sand, and unusually dry; there is nothing pecu- 
liar in the circumstances of the arch, and I cannot but attribute 
the occurrence to an unknown cause, which in time would _— 
resulted, as in the following instance, in 
2. Spontaneous Combustion.—This instance came under the 
immediate observation of Rev. President Lord, of Dartmouth 
College, a few years since. He noticed for two or three days, 
throughout his house, that well known and peculiar odor of hot 
or ignited ashes, unaccompanied by smoke or the odor of buming 
wood. After repeated and unsuccessful examinations had been 
made for the cause, attention was finally drawn to the ashes ina 
corner of the cellar, which were found in a state of complete 
ignition. On being stirred with a stick, the fire, it was found, 
pervaded the whole mass, some twenty five bushels, and it was 
extinguished by an abundance of water. This heap had been 
accumulated during the two years previous. They lay upon 
the bottom of the cellar, which was moist, and surrounded on 
three sides with brick; nothing intervened between them and 
the floor above, and there seemed great reason to fear the house 
