9#- On Spontaneous Inflammations < 
No. 13* 
Observations on Spontaneous Inflammations ; with a 
particular Account of that which happened on hoard a 
Russian Frigate in the year 1781 ; and of the Expe- 
riments made in order to ascertain the cause of it. In 
a Letter to the Editors, from the Reverend William 
Tooke, F. R. S. Member of the Imperial Academy 
of Sciences at St. Peter sburgh , 8£c.* 
The following observations on spontaneous inflamma- 
tions were drawn up, a few years ago, in Russia ; they 
w ere suggested by an accident which happened on board 
a frigate lying in the harbour of Cronstadt, of which 
mention is made in your last number, f I w as then at 
Cronstadt, and consequently had an opportunity of pro- 
curing an accurate account, not only of the accident it- 
self, but also of the experiments made to ascertain the 
cause of it. If you think proper to add them to the ac- 
counts of spontaneous inflammations which you have al- 
ready published, you are at liberty to do so. 
The explication of the causes of spontaneous inflam- 
mations, in certain substances and compositions, must 
ever be an object of consequence to the magistracy ; as, 
by discovering the causes of such phenomena, the sus- 
picion of felonious practices in setting lire to buildings 
may frequently be avoided, and many an innocent per- 
son saved from capital punishment. A bare attempt to 
lessen the number of victims, that may possibly be doom- 
ed to bleed at the bar of mistaken justice, can never be 
thought either frivolous or impertinent. 
I intentionally pass over the pyrophori , at present so 
well known to chymists, prepared from alum, &c. as not 
* Reperk of Arts and Manufactures* vol. S.p, 95. 
f See p. 60, 
