140 PHILOSOPHICAL TllANSACT IONS. [aNNO 1745. 



Proofs. — Fat is an oily liquid separated from the blood by the glands of the 

 meinbrana adiposa; and it is of an easily combustible nature, as common expe- 

 rience shows. Our blood is of such a nature: as also our lymph and bile; all 

 which, when dried by art, flame like spirit of wine at the approach of the least 

 tire, and burn away into ashes. Such a dr}'ing up of matters may be caused in 

 our body by drinking rectified brandy, and strong wines; as Mons. Litre obsei-ved 

 in the dissection of a woman 45 years old, in the History of the Royal Academy 

 of Sciences, 1706, p. 23. Which eftect may oftener happen, if the spirit of 

 wine has any mixture of camphor; for that liquor is but a sublimated oil, whose 

 sulphureous particles, being attenuated by the fermentation, when separated from 

 fixed and salt matters, are easily put in motion, and, rolling through the air, 

 become flame and fire. 



'■ Besides, though the salts which are in living and vegetable creatures are not 

 naturally inclined to kindle, yet they often contribute to it, particularly when 

 there is joined some strong boiling fermentation. It is from such a cause that 

 we know how the mixture of two liquors, though cold to the touch, produces a 

 flaming fire. Becher was the first discoverer of this marvellous phenomenon, by 

 mixing oil of vitriol with that of turpentine. Borrichius afterwards did the same, 

 by mixing oil of tupentine with aquafortis; and at last Mons. Tournefort, by 

 joining spirit of nitre with the oil of sassafras ; and Mons. Homberg with this 

 acid spirit, together with the oil and quintessences of all the aromatic Indian 

 herbs ; nay, Mr. Homberg asserts, that with a certain cold water cannons were 

 fired, Anno 17 10, in the aforesaid History of the Academy of Sciences, p. 66. 

 It is out of question how, by a strong fermentation, magazines of gunpowder^ 

 barns, paper-mills, and haycocks, have been set on fire. 



The acid particles in our bodies are much united with the fat and oily parts ; 

 nay all our limbs abound with oil and acid. What wonder then if they kindle? 

 as Mr. Homberg well observes, in the aforesaid history, 1712, 1717> from p. 

 13 to 31, where he takes notice, that all our limbs have abundance of fetid oil, 

 and volatile salt, and therefore easily combustible. 



We ought not to omit how the teeth are formed by so many short tubes, the 

 bones by long ones, and easier therefore to be set on fire. Malpighi observed 

 also, that the bones contain a fat oily matter. Besides all this, we know that 

 the sebaceous glands are spread all over the body, and that an oily moisture, with 

 now and then a nitrous sulphureous smell, perspires from our skin, to which 

 Dr. Blancard ascribes the whole circulation. Abundance of combustible matter, 

 shut up in a great number of cells, lies in the omentum. 



There is further to be considered the vast quantity of efliiuvia that emanate 

 from our bodies. Sanctorius observed that, of 8 lb. of food and drink in a day, 

 there is an insensible perspiration of about 5 ; computing with them those efliiuvia 



