172 On the Combustion of the Human Body , 
most all addicted to spirituous liquors. The woman men- 
tioned in the Transactions of Copenhagen had for three 
years made such an immoderate use of them, that she 
would take no other nourishment. Mary Clues, for a 
year before the accident happened, had scarcely been a 
single day without drinking half a pint of rum or of ani- 
seed-water. The wife of Millet had been continually in- 
toxicated ; Madame de Boiseon for several years had 
drunk nothing but spirits ; Mary Jauffret was much ad- 
dicted to drinking ; and Mademoiselle Thuars, and the 
other women of Caen, were equally fond of strong li- 
quors. 
Such excess, in regard to the use of spirituous liquors, 
must have had a powerful action on the bodies of the 
persons to whom I allude. All their fluids and solids 
mo st have experienced its fatal influence \ for the proper- 
ty of the absorbing vessels, which is so active in the hu- 
man body, seems on this occasion to have acted a distin- 
guished part. It has been observed that the urine of 
great drinkers is generally aqueous and limpid. It ap- 
pears, that in drunkards who make an immoderate use 
of spirituous liquors, the aqueous part of their drink is 
discharged by the urinary passage, while the alcoholic, 
almost like the volatile part of aromatic substances, not 
being subjected to an entire decomposition, is absorbed 
into every part of their bodies. 
I shall now proceed to the second general observation, 
that the combustion took place only in women. 
I will not pretend to assert that men are not liable to 
combustion in the same manner, hut 1 have neyer yet 
been able to find one well certified instance of such an 
event ; and as we cannot proceed with any certainty but 
on the authority of facts, I think this singularity so sur- 
prising as to give rise to a few reflections. Perhaps 
when the cause is examined, it will appear perfectly na- 
