'produced by the Use of Spirituous Liquors. 169 
and addicted to drinking, having been burnt in her 
apartment, M. Roc as, my colleague, who was commis- 
sioned to make a report respecting the remains of her 
body, found only a mass of ashes, and a few bones, cal- 
cined in such a manner that on the least pressure they 
were reduced to dust. The bones of the cranium, one 
hand, and a foot, had in part escaped the action of the 
fire. Near these remains stood a table untouched, and 
under the table a small wooden stove, the grating of 
which, having been long burnt, afforded an aperture, 
through w hich, it is probable, the fire that occasioned the 
melancholy accident had been communicated : one chair, 
wiiich stood too near the flames, had the seat and fore- 
feet burnt. In other respects, there was no appearance 
of fire either in the chimney or the apartment ; so that, 
except the fore-part of the chair, it appears to me that no 
other combustible matter contributed to this speedy inci- 
neration, which was effected in the space of seven or 
eight hours.” 
The other instance, mentioned in the Journal de Me* 
dicine ,* took place at Caen, and is thus related by Me- 
rille, a surgeon of that city, still alive :— u Being re- 
quested, on the 3d of June, 1783, by the king’s officers, 
to draw up a report of the state in which I found Made- 
moiselle Thuars, who was said to have been burnt, I 
made the following observations The body lay with 
the crown of the head resting against one of the and!- 
roils, at the distance of eighteen inches from the fire ; the 
remainder of the body w as placed obliquely before the 
chimney, the w hole being nothing but a mass of ashes* 
Even the most solid bones had lost their form and con- 
sistence ; none of them could be distinguished except 
the coronal, the two parietal bones, the two lumbar ver* 
* Vol. 59. p. 140. 
Y 
Yol. i. 
