Protection of Persons from Fire. Ill 



Chap. XL — On the advantages ivhich the foregoing processes may 

 be of to insurance companies against losses by fire. 



Marine insurances are of much longer standing than those against 

 fire. It was not until 1714, that the English began to provide 

 against these losses ; but they soon found imitators on some parts of 

 the continent. Italy appears to have been very slow in admitting 

 these economical institutions. In 1819, they were encouraged in the 

 Italian states of Austria by an imperial circular. A company was 

 formed at Trieste in 1824, and another at Milan in 1825. The king 

 of Sardinia followed this example, and a company was established at 

 Turin in 1828. 



The author proposes that insurance companies should extend their 

 risks to personal security. By providing companies with a certain 

 number of suits of the defensive armor, and offering high rewards to 

 those who, by their courage and dexterity, should rescue human be- 

 ings from the devouring element, they would usefully and honorably 

 extend the sphere of their influence. 



The remainder of this chapter is chiefly occupied with remarks 

 upon the imperfect operation of insurance in Italy. In Bologna, a 

 large store-house was burned three years ago, and great loss sus- 

 tained for want of the means of unbarricading a door, through which 

 a large portion of the goods might have been saved. A person 

 equipped with the Aldini armor, would easily have accomplished this 

 object. 



Chap, XII. — General consider atioyis on the causes of fires, and the 

 means of preventing the disasters which they produce. 



The atmosphere (says the author) may be heated so far as to kin- 

 dle very combustible materials, and which in their turn set fire to oth-^ 

 er matters more abundant, which burn only at a higher temperature. 

 The minister Sommer, at Koningsburg, made many experiments to 

 demonstrate this fact, and to ascertain the various circumstances of 

 it, and he proved that conflagrations may occur without either negli- 

 gence or crime. Cloth, wool, cotton, hemp, Stc, which have been 

 charged with oil, will undergo spontaneous combustion. This fact 

 has been long knovi^n. The chronicles of Villani inform us that a 

 fire took place at Florence in 1344, from the spontaneous heat of 

 some oiled cloth, which burned eighteen houses and shops. These 



