6M 



SPONSOR 



SPONTANEOUS GENEKATION 



valued remedy for scrofulous diseases and goitre ; 

 but iodine ami bromine, from which it derives all 

 its value, are now administered in oilier forms. 



See popular account of sponge* by Sollu in Cassell's 

 Natural Hittory ; . Haeckel, Hie KaUttelivamme 

 (1872); Ckallenger Report* on Sponges, by Haecltrl, 

 1'olejai-ff, Schulze, Sollas ; Vosuiaer, ' Die Poriferen. 1 in 

 Bronn's Tkirrniek ; Von Lendenfeld, ' A Monograph of 

 Australian Sponges,' Proe. Linn. Soc. N.S. Watet (vol. 

 iz. 1884). 



Sponsor ( Lat., ' promiser '). See GODFATHER. 



Spontaneity. See NERVOUS SYSTEM, WILL. 



Spontaneous Combustion i- a pheno- 

 menon that occasionally manifests itself in mineral 

 and organic substances. For some facts connected 

 with the spontaneous ignition of mineral sub- 

 stances, see rYROPHOKl'8, Ordinary charcoal does 

 not undergo combustion in air below a temperature 

 of 1000, out in some states, especially when im- 

 pregnated with oil, it is liable spontaneously to 

 acquire a temperature which may lead to un- 

 expected combustion. There have been many 

 instances of the spontaneous ignition of coals con- 

 taining iron Pyrites (q.v.) when moistened with 

 water. The pyritea which most readily give rise 

 to spontaneous combustion are those in which the 

 protosulphide is associated with the bisulphide 

 of iron ; ami these occur among the Yorkshire 

 coals and in some kinds of South Wales coal. 

 Sulphur has no tendency to spontaneous com- 

 bustion, but Dr Taylor refers to an instance that 

 came to his own knowledge, in which there was 

 reason to believe that the vapour of bisulphide of 

 carbon in an india-rubber factory was ignited by 

 solar heat traversing glass. Phosphorus, when in 

 a dry state, has a great tendency to ignite spon- 

 taneously, and it has l>een observed to melt and 

 take fire (when touched) in a room in which the 

 temperature was under 70. The ordinary lucifer- 

 match composition is luminous in the dark in 

 warm summer nights, which shows that oxidation, 

 and therefore a process of heating, is going on. 

 Hence large quantities of these matches kept in 

 contact may produce a heat sufficient for their 

 ignition. ' I nave seen them ignite,' says Dr 

 Taylor, 'as a result of exposure to the sun's rays 

 for the purpose of drying.' 



In organic substances, apart from the accidents 

 that may result from the admixture of strong nitric 

 or sulphuric acid with wool, straw, or certain 

 essential oils, and which, if they occur, are im- 

 mediate and obvious, there are many case- in 

 which, ' without contact with any energetical 

 chemical compounds, certain substances such as 

 hay, cotton and woody fibre generally, including 

 tow, tlax, hemp, jute, rags, leaves, spent tan, 

 cocoa-nut fibre, straw in manure-heaps, &c. when 

 stacked in large quantities in a damp state, undergo 

 a process of heating from simple oxidation (erema- 

 causis) or fermentation, and after a time may pass 

 into a state of spontaneous combustion' (Taylor). 

 Cotton, woollen articles, hemp, tow, and flax im- 

 pregnated with oil, when collected in large quantity, 

 are specially liable to ignite spontaneously ; ami the 

 accumulation of cotton-waste, used in wiping lamp- 

 and the oiled surfaces of machinery, has more than 

 once given rise to accident*, and led to unfounded 

 charges of incendiarism. Dr Taylor relates a case 

 in which a fire took place in a shop 'by reason of 

 H quantity of oil having been spilled on dry saw- 

 dust.' According to Chevallier, vegetables boiled 

 in oil furnish a residue which is liable to spon- 

 taneous ignition. The great tire at London Bruise 

 in 1861 was referred to the spontaneous combust ion 

 of jut in ii - ordinary state ; but Dr Taylor remarks 

 that this is wholly incredible, and from experi- 

 menta which he made for the defendant* in the 

 case of Hepburn r. Lordan (1865), and on other 



grounds, he holds that there is even no evidence 

 <>f moist jute undergoing spontaneous combustion. 

 lry wood is siip|M>scd by Chevallier and some other 

 chemists to have the projH-rty of igniting spon- 

 taneously. Deal which has been dried by contact- 

 or contiguity with (lues or pipes conveying hot 

 water or steam at 212 is snppo-cd to In- in a con 

 dit ion for bursting into flame when air gets access 

 to it ; and the destruction of the Houses of Parlia- 

 ment, and many other great tires, have been 

 ascribed to this cause ; but it appears that soim- 

 amount of charring is necessary, -ind that on slight 

 cooling a considerable quantity of oxygen is 

 absorbed from the air, which induces a sutlicieiii rise 

 of temperature to set up spontaneous combustion. 

 In a case recorded in the Annulet i/'lli/;/it [ >ie for 

 1841, MM. Chevallier, Ollivier, ami Mexn-^rie drew 

 the conclusion that a barn had caught lire from the 

 spontaneous combustion of damp oats which were 

 stored in it. No such cases are known to have 

 occurred in Great Britain. See also FIRE, p. 634 ; 

 and GUN-COTTON, p. 468. 



Spontaneous combustion of the human body is 

 supposed to have occurred in a number of recorded 

 cases, of which one of the earliest was that of 

 Mine. Millet at Rheims in 1725, and one of the 

 most notable that of a man found burning in 

 bed in 1847 (Gazette Medicate, 4th September 

 1847). Some of the alleged cases have been traced 

 to wilful bunting after murder; some are plainly 

 incredible ; the remainder, with the exception of 

 the 1847 case, which remains unexplained, can all 

 be traced to the destruction of the bodies of intoxi- 

 cated brandy-drinkers, near an open fire in winter, 

 with no one present and no evidence forthcoming 

 as to the time occupied in the combustion, or as to 

 the circumstances, other than intoxication, lire- 

 ceding the combustion. Liebig discusses the sub- 

 ject in his Letters on Chemistry, and concludes that, 

 while a fat dead body charged with alcohol may 

 perhaps burn, a living body, in which the blood is 

 circulating, cannot take fire under any circum- 

 stances. 



For further details the reader U referred to Graham's 

 ' Keport mi the Cause of the Fire in the Amazon,' in the 

 Quarterly Journal of the Chemical Society, vol. v. p. 

 34 ; to the article ' Combustion ' in Watta'a Dictionary 

 of Chfmittry, vol. i. ; and to the elaborate chapter on 

 this subject in Taylor's Principle* and Practice of 

 Mi-lii >if .1 tiri*i>n"li "tin . For spontaneous combustion 

 in the human body, see the article thereon in the 

 Medical Encyclopedias; the preface to Dickens's Bleak 

 ftoute ; Liebig's Lrttert on Chemistry ; Dupuytren's 

 Lcfont Oralet ; and Taylor's Medical Jurisprudence. 



Spontaneous Generation i* a term applied 

 to tlie real or imaginary development of lowly 

 organisms from non-living matter. The facte are 

 that when organic substance is exposed to the air 

 it putrefies, and at the same time living animal- 

 maggots, infusoria, and others, according to the 

 nature and conditions of the substance appeal in 

 it. The question is, whence do the living animal- 

 come; from the organic stuff or from germs present 

 in it or in the air? There is a further question 

 what is the cause of the putrefaction ; is it an 

 ordinary process of slow oxidation or is it caused 

 by the living organisms? If the dead organic 

 matter can give rise to life, then we know scum- 

 thing of the mode of origin of life upon this planet , 

 for we can make solutions of inorganic salts that 

 will support life, and might therefore also give 

 origin to it ; if not, then we are entirely ignorant 

 as to that origin. For many years no one has 

 doubted but that, if one is careful to exclude all 

 genus from the organic Mull', no life can proceed 

 from non-living matter, even if it has once formed 

 part of some living organism and is in the most 

 complex state in which such matter is known to 



