168 On the Combustion of the Human Body , 
of Plerguer, near Dol/ ? says he, wrote to me the fol- 
lowing letter,, dated February 22, 1749 : Allow me to 
communicate to you a fact which took place here about a 
fortnight ago. Madame de Boiseon, 80 years of age, ex- 
ceedingly meagre, who had drunk nothing but spirits for 
several years, was sitting in her elbow-chair before the 
fire while her waiting-maid went out of the room for a 
few moments. On her return, seeing her mistress on 
fire, she immediately gave an alarm, and some people 
having come to her assistance, one of them endeavoured 
to extinguish the flames with his hand, but they adhered 
to it as if it had been dipped in brandy or oil on fire. 
Water was brought and thrown on the lady in abun- 
dance, yet the fire appeared more violent, and was not 
extinguished till the whole flesh had been consumed. 
Her skeleton, exceedingly black, remained entire in the 
chair, which was only a little scorched ; one leg only, and 
the two hands, detached themselves from the rest of the 
bones. It is not known whether her clothes had caught 
fire by approaching the grate. The lady was in the same 
place in which she sat every day ; there was no extraor- 
ninary fire, and she had not fallen. What makes me 
suspect that the use of spirits might have produced this 
effect is, that I have been assured, that at the gate of Hi- 
nan an accident of the like kind happened to another 
woman under similar circumstances P 
To these instances, which I have multiplied to 
strengthen the evidence, I shall add two other facts of 
the same kind, published in the Journal de Medicine .* 
The first took place at Aix, in Provence, and is thus re- 
lated by Muraire, a surgeon “ In the month of Fe- 
bruary, 1779, Mary Jauffret, widow' of Nicholas Gra- 
vier, shoemaker, of a small size, exceedingly corpulent, 
* Vol. 59, p. 440, 
