COMBUSTION. 



&5 



of all their supernatural character. Other inflamma- 

 ble gases have been often found existing 1 in nature in 

 a free state, and have been collected in large quanti- 

 ties. In the western part of the State of New York, 

 forty miles from Buffalo, and two from Lake Erie, a 

 village is lighted by its native gas. On removing an 

 old mill, bubbles were seen to rise which were found 

 to be inflammable. A company was then formed, a 

 gasometer constructed, and upwards of a hundred 

 burners were supplied with this gas. In China, near 

 the town of Thsee-Lieou-Tsing, springs of inflamma- 

 ble gas have been found. If, according to M. Imbert, 

 a torch be presented to the orifice of a well when the 

 tube full of water is coming up, it inflames and pro- 

 duces a jet of fire from twenty to thirty feet high. 

 These springs are employed for heating and lighting 

 all the salt-works in the neighbourhood. Bamboo 

 pipes carry the gas From the spring to the place where 

 it is intended to be consumed. These tubes are ter- 

 minated by a tube of pipe-clay to prevent their being 

 burned. A single well heats more than 300 kettles. 

 The fire so obtained is exceedingly brisk, and the 

 cauldrons are rendered useless in a few months. 

 Other bamboos conduct the gas intended for lighting 

 the streets and the different apartments in houses ; so 

 that nature has herself supplied this place with a 

 complete establishment of gas-light. It is added that 

 in winter the poor people, in order to warm them- 

 selves, dig the sand to the depth of a foot ; they 

 then set fire to the gas arising from the hollow so 

 formed, and sitting round it warm themselves as long 

 as they feel inclined. They then fill up the hollow 

 with sand, and the fire goes out. This singular cir- 

 cumstance arises from there being a vast number of 

 coal mines in this district, which contain so much 

 coal gas that it escapes into the strata around them. 



When we consider the changes which are constantly 

 taking place in the interior of the earth, it is by no 

 means surprising that inflammable and sometimes 

 poisonous gases should be evolved ; it is, however, 

 very remarkable that inflammable gas has sometimes 

 been generated in the bodies of living animals. It is 

 recorded that on opening the body of an ox, which 

 had been some time sick, an explosion took place, and 

 the flame, which rose to the height of more than five 

 feet, scorched severely the butcher and a little girl 

 who stood near him. A case was read by M. Bally 

 to the Royal Academy of Medicine at Paris, of a 

 man who, having been admitted into the Hotel Dieu 

 ill with typhus, died emphysematous, that is, with air 

 effused in the tissue below the skin, and when the 

 skin was punctured a gas escaped, which was set on 

 fire by the flame of a candle. It burned for some 

 time ; the flame being blue at its base, white at its 

 summit, and as the body presented no signs of putre- 

 faction, the air having been effused below the skin 

 before death, it was inferred that it must have been 

 generated during life. Another case, which was wit- 

 nessed by Leduc, is related by Deneux ; it is that of 

 a lady from whose body during life a gas proceeded, 

 which took fire and exploded. It is therefore certain 

 that inflammable gases may be developed in the 

 human body during life ; and this fact has been 

 adduced in explanation of that curious phenomenon, 

 the spontaneous combustion of the human body. 

 The assertion that the human body may of itself take 

 fire and, with the exception perhaps of a few frag- 

 ments of bone, be entirely consumed, appears so 

 marvellous that the occurrence may well be at first 



doubted ; yet on inquiry we shall find that such a 

 mass of evidence exists in proof of its having taken 

 place, that the doubts and suspicions of the most 

 sceptical must be set at rest. In the Transactions of 

 Copenhagen we read that, in 1692, a woman of the 

 lower class who for three years had used spirits to 

 such an extent that she could take no other nourish- 

 ment, having sat down one night on a straw chair to 

 sleep, was consumed in the night time, so that next 

 morning no part of her was found, excepting the skull 

 and the extreme joints of the fingers. In the Annual 

 Register for 1 763, the case is recorded of the Countess 

 Cornelia Bandi, of the town of Cesena, who died in 

 a similar manner. This lady was in her sixty-second 

 year, and well all day until night, when she began to 

 feel a little heavy. After supper she went to bed, 

 and, having talked two or three hours with her maid, 

 fell asleep, upon which the maid servant left the room, 

 closing after her the door. The next morning, on 

 going to call her mistress, she found her corpse in 

 this deplorable condition. Four feet distant from the 

 bed was a heap of ashes, two legs untouched, stock- 

 ings on, between which lay the head, the brains, half 

 of the back part of the skull and the whole chin 

 burned to ashes, among which were found three 

 fingers blackened. All the rest was ashes which had 

 this quality, that they left in the hand a greasy and 

 offensive moisture. The air of the room had soot 

 floating in it, and from the window a greasy yellowish 

 fluid trickled. Of two candles on the table the tallow 

 was gone, but the cotton left some moisture about the 

 feet of the candlestick. The bed was undamaged, 

 the blankets and sheets being raised on one side, as 

 when a person gets out of bed. This case was pub- 

 lished when it took place by Bianchini, the prebendary 

 of Verona ; it was also attested by Scipio Maffei, a 

 learned contemporary of Bianchini ; and finally con- 

 firmed to the Royal Society of London by Pauf Rolli. 

 The narration is followed by an inquiry into the cause 

 of the conflagration, the result of which is that it was 

 not from the lamp or a flash of lightning, but that the 

 combustion began spontaneously. 



Vicq. d'Azyr, Lair, Kopp, Dupuytren, and Marc, 

 have related a number of other cases, from which, 

 taken collectively, the following inferences have been 

 deduced : 



1. Spontaneous combustion is a calamity almost 

 peculiar to the old and feeble ; and those who have 

 suffered have in general been habitual and excessive 

 indulgers in alcoholic liquors. 



2. Women seem peculiarly prone to it : thus of 

 seventeen cases collected by Kopp sixteen occurred 

 to females, while the eight cases mentioned by Lair 

 were all females. 



3. The flame is of a lambent and flickering nature, 

 of a blue colour, and not readily communicable to 

 other inflammable bodies. Water not only does not 

 extinguish, but frequently gives the flames additional 

 activity. 



4. The combustion proceeds with extraordinary 

 rapidity ; the decomposition of the entire body being 

 usually effected in a very short space of time. 



5. The trunk is generally entirely consumed ; but 

 portions of the skull and extremities have been occa- 

 sionally found left. 



6. A strong and peculiar empyreumatic odour is 

 generally exhaled during the combustion, and upon 

 adjacant objects there is found a greasy, moist, and 

 fetid fuliginous deposit. 



