will of itself take fire as soon as it is brought into con- 

 tact with the external air. 



Other damps are sometimes as mortal as those in 

 mines. In the year 1701, a mason being at work in the 

 city of Rennes, near the brink of a well, let his hammer 

 fail into it. A labourer who was sent down for it was 

 suffocated before lie reached the water. A second sent 

 to draw it up, met with the same fate. So did a third. 

 At last a fourth, half drunk, was let down, with a 

 charge to call out immediately, if he felt any inconveni- 

 ence. He did call as soon as he came near the water, 

 and was drawn up instantly ; yet he died m three days, 

 crying out. he felt a heat, which scorched his entrails. 

 Yet the three carcasses being drawn up with hooks, and 

 opened, there appeared no cause of their death. 



The same historians relate, that a baker of Chartres 

 having carried seven or eight bushels of brands out of 

 his oven into a cellar 36 stairs deep, his son, a strong 

 young fellow, going with more, his candle went out on 

 the middle of the stairs. Having lighted it afresh, he 

 no sooner got into the cellar than he cried for help, and 

 they heard no more of him. His brother, an able youth, 

 ran down, cried, " Tarn dead/' and was heard no more. 

 He was followed by his wife, and she by a maid, and stilL 

 it was the same. Yet a hardy fellow resolved to go and 

 help them ; he cried too, and was seen no more. A six,th 

 man desired a hook to draw some of them out. He 

 drew up the maid, who fetched a sigh, and died. Next 

 day one undertook to draw up the rest, and was let 

 down on a wooden horse with ropes, to be drawn up 

 whenever he should call. J^e soon called, but the rope 

 breaking, he fell back again, and was awhile after drawn 

 up dead. Upon opening him the membranes of the 

 brain were found extremely stretched, his lungs spotted 

 vyith blood, his intestines swelled as big as one's arm, and 

 red as blood, and all the muscles of his arms, thighs, 

 and legs, torn and separated from their bones. 



