On Spontaneous Inflammations . 95 
properly belonging to my design, though deserving of no- 
tice in explaining the causes of spontaneous inflamma- 
tion ; nor shall I say any thing of those inflammations 
that happen in the mineral kingdom, in coal-mines, alum- 
pits, &c. as they are sufficiently known, and their causes 
have often been discussed. 
Of incomparably more importance, and far less known, 
are the spontaneous inflammations of substances from the 
animal and vegetable kingdoms ; and these are what I 
design here briefly to bring together ; as I firmly believe, 
that a more extensive publication of. these phenomena 
may prove of general utility to mankind, by lessening the 
dangers to which they are exposed. 
A recent instance will serve to elucidate what I now 
advance. A person of the name of Rude, at that time 
an apothecary at Bautzen, had prepared a pyrophorus 
from rye-bran and alum. Not long after he had made 
the discovery, there broke out, in the village of Naus- 
sitz, a great fire, which did much mischief, and was said 
to have been occasioned by the treating of a sick cow in 
the cow-house. Mr. Rude knew that the countrymen 
were used to lay an application of parched rye-bran to 
their cattle, for curing the thick neck ; he knew also, 
that alum and rye-bran, by a proper process, yielded a 
pyrophorus ; and now he wished to try whether parched 
rye-bran alone would have the same effect. According- 
ly, he roasted a quantity of rye-bran by the fire, till it 
had acquired the colour of roasted coffee. This roasted 
bran he wrapped up in a linen cloth ; in the space of a 
few minutes there arose a strong smoke through the 
cloth, accompanied by a smell of burning. Not long af- 
terwards the rag grew as black as tinder, and the bran, 
now become hot, fell through it on the ground in little 
balls. Mr. Rude repeated the experiment at various 
times, and always with the same result. Who now will 
