SPONTANEOUS COMBUSTION. 321 



any time be lighted. Mr. Gill found that a wick 

 composed of twelve threads of the cotton yarn 

 commonly used for lamps will require half an 

 ounce of alcohol to keep the wire red-hot for 

 eight hours. This lamp has been kept burning 

 for sixty hours ; but it can scarcely be recom- 

 mended for a bed-room, as an acid vapour is dis- 

 engaged during the burning of the alcohol. 

 When perfumes are dissolved in the alcohol, 

 they are diffused through the apartment during 

 the slow combustion of the vapour. 



A species of combustion without flame, and 

 analogous to that which has been described, is 

 exhibited in the extraordinary phenomenon of the 

 spontaneous combustion of living bodies. That 

 animal bodies are liable to internal combustion, 

 is a fact which was well known to the ancients. 

 Many cases which have been adduced as exam- 

 ples of spontaneous combustion are merely cases 

 of individuals who were highly susceptible of 

 strong electrical excitation. In one of these 

 cases, however, Peter Bovisteau asserts, that the 

 sparks of fire thus produced, reduced to ashes 

 the hair of a young man ; and John de Viana 

 informs us, that the wife of Dr. Freilas, physician 

 to the Cardinal de Royas, Archbishop of Toledo, 

 emitted by perspiration an inflammable matter of 

 such a nature, that when the ribbon which she 

 wore over her shift was taken from her, and ex- 

 posed to the cold air, it instantly took fire, and 

 shot forth like grains of gunpowder. Peter 

 Borelli has recorded a fact of the very same kind 

 respecting a peasant whose linen took fire, 

 whether it was laid up in a box when wet, or 

 hung up in the open air. The same author 



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