174 On the Combustion of the Human Body? 
the propensity of Mary Clues to this vice had always in- 
creased after the death of her husband, which happened 
about a year before almost all the other women of 
whom I have spoken, being equally unconfined in regard 
to their actions, could gratify their attachment to spiritu- 
ous liquors without opposition. 
It may have been observed that the obesity of "women, 
as they advance in life, renders them more sedentary ; 
and if, as has been remarked by Baumes,* a sedentary 
life overcharges the body with hydrogen, this effect must 
be still more sensible among old women. Dancing and 
walking, which form salutary recreation for young per- 
sons, are at a certain age interdicted as much by nature as 
by prejudice. It needs therefore excite no astonishment 
that old women, who are in general more corpulent and 
more addicted to drinking, and who are often motionless 
like inanimate masses, during the moment of intoxica- 
tion, should experience the effects of combustion. 
Perhaps we have no occasion to go very far to search 
for the cause of these combustions. The fire of the 
wooden stove, the chimney, or of the candle, might have 
been communicated to the clothes, and might have in this 
manner burnt the persons above mentioned, on account of 
the peculiar disposition of their bodies. Maffei ob- 
serves, that the Countess of Cesena was accustomed to 
bathe her whole body with spirit of wine. The vicinity 
of the candle and lamp, which w ere found near the re- 
mains of her body, occasioned, without doubt, the com- 
bustion. This accident reminds us of that which hap- 
pened to Charles II. king of Navarre. This prince, be- 
ing addicted to drunkenness and excesses of every kind, 
had caused himself to be wrapped up in cloths dipped in 
spirits, in order to revive the natural heat of his body, 
Essai du Systeme Chemique de la Science de TKomme 
