Oil spontaneous Inflammations . §S 
found, and how the cloth could have been reduced to the 
condition in which it was found, no one could even con- 
jecture. The idea which occurred, and which made 
Mr. Golding so uneasy, was that of an attempt to burn 
the arsenal. Thus matters were when I joined him, and 
when lie told me the story, and shewed me the remain- 
der of the cloth. It luckily happened that, in some che- 
mical amusements, I had occasion to consult Hopson’s 
Chemistry a very few days before, and met with a pas- 
sage on this particular subject, (p. 629 ,) which I read 
with a determination to pursue the experiment at some 
future period, but had neglected to do so. The moment 
I saw the cloth, the similarity of circumstances struck 
me so forcibly, that I sent for the book, and shewed it to 
Mr. Golding, who agreed with me that it appeared suffi- 
cient to account for the accident ; however, to convince 
ourselves, we took a piece of the same kind of cloth, 
wetted it with linseed-oil, and put it into a box, which 
was locked and carried to his quarters. In about three 
hours the box began to smoke, when, on opening it, the 
cloth was found exactly in the same condition as that 
which had given us so much uneasiness in the morning ; 
and, on opening the cloth, and admitting the external 
air, it burst into tire. This w as sufficiently convincing ; 
however, to make it more certain, the experiment was 
three times tried, and with the same success. 
