Combustibility of Wood Ashes. 167 
would have been burned but for this timely discovery. If ashes 
are liable to such spontaneous ignition, and there is nothing in 
these cases known that is peculiar, it suggests the propriety of 
arching all receptacles for them if in a eellar, and the necessity 
of keeping them always in receptacles constructed of incombus- 
tible materials. It is hoped that similar occurrences will be re- 
corded for the more clear elucidation of this obscure subject. 
The editors have received a notice of two similar occurrences, 
in a letter from Dr. John T. Plummer, Richmond, Indiana. 
3. Combustibility of Wood Ashes.—Several years ago, a large 
wooden box, standing in an old frame building, back of my 
dwelling house, and containing ashes, was discovered to be on fire. 
Before the fire was extinguished, a hole ten or twelve inches in 
diameter had been burned through one side of the box, and the 
flames had seized the building. On strict inquiry of the family 
that then lived in my house, I was assured by every individual 
with one accord, that no ashes had been emptied into the box for 
at least two weeks; the box having been filled for that length of 
time, the ashes had been thrown elsewhere. I could not doubt 
the veracity of my tenants, and therefore was led to attribute the 
phenomenon to an incendiary act, to some chemical change in 
the contents of the box, or to hot ashes thrown in and the fact 
being forgotten by the members of the family. 
_ To satisfy myself respecting the origin of the fae, I mentee 
the box, and was at once n had co 
menced within it. The hole burned through the side of it, was 
near the bottom, and widened inward like a funnel, presenting 
some resemblance to the holes in the shelf of a pneumatic cistern. 
The outside of the box was charred where the flames passed up. 
Outside view. : 
The inquiry having been conducted thus far, I was induced to 
reflect whether an ignited coal could remain buried in ashes to 
the depth of two feet, in a state of inaction fora fortnight. If 
this pemeeromibls; why should it ultimately become such a source 
