produced by the Use of Spirituous Liquors . 163 
posterior part of the cranium, and the whole chin, had 
been consumed : three fingers were found in the state of 
a coal ; the rest of the body was reduced to ashes, which, 
when touched, left on the fingers a fat, foetid moisture. A 
small lamp which stood on the floor was covered with 
ashes, and contained no oil ; the tallow of two candles 
was melted on a table, but the wicks still remained, and 
the feet of the candlesticks were covered with a certain 
moisture. The bed was not damaged ; the bed-clothes 
and coverlid wepe raised up and thrown on one side, as 
is the case wheh a person gets up. The furniture and 
tapestry were covered with a moist kind of soot of the 
colour of ashes, which had penetrated into the drawers 
and dirtied the linen. The soot having been conveyed 
to a neighbouring kitchen, adhered to the walls and the 
utensils. A piece of bread in the cupboard was covered 
with it, and no dog would touch it. The infectious 
odour had been communicated to other apartments. The 
Annual Register states, that the Countess of Cesena was 
accustomed to bathe all her body in camphorated spirit 
of wine. Bianehini caused the details of this deplora- 
ble event to be published at the time when it took place, 
and no one contradicted them. It was attested also by 
Scipio Maffei, a learned cotemporary of Bianehini, who 
was far from |being credulous ; and, in the last place, this 
surprising fact was confirmed to the Royal Society of 
London by Paul Rolli. The Annual Register mentions 
also two other facts of the same kind which occurred in 
England, one at Southampton, and the other at Co 
ventry. 
An instance of the like kind is preserved in the same 
work * in a letter to Mr. Wilmer, surgeon \— u Mary 
Clues, aged 50, was much addicted to intoxication. Her 
* Annual Register for J773, p, 78. 
