produced by the Use of Spirituous Liquors . 175 
which had been weakened by debauchery ; but the cloths 
caught lire while his attendants were fastening them, and 
he perished a victim to his imprudence. 
Besides accidental combustion, it remains for us to ex- 
amine whether spontaneous combustion of the human bo- 
dy can take place, as asserted by Le Cat. Spontaneous 
combustion is the burning of the human body without 
the contact of any substance in a state of ignition. Na- 
ture, indeed, affords several instances of spontaneous 
combustion in the mineral and vegetable kingdoms. The 
decomposition of pyrites, and the subterranean processes 
which are carried on in volcanoes, afford proofs of it. 
Coal-mines may readily take lire spontaneously ; and 
this has been found to be the case with heaps of coals 
deposited in close places. It is by a fermentation of this 
kind that dunghills sometimes become hot, and take fire. 
This may serve also to explain why trusses of hay, car- 
ried home during moist weather, and piled up on each 
other, sometimes take fire. But, can spontaneous com- 
bustion take place in the human body ? If some authors 
are to be credited,* very violent combustion may be pro- 
duced in our bodies by nature and by artificial processes. 
Stimulus f says, that in the northern countries fiames of- 
j ten burst from the stomach of persons in a state of intox- 
ication. Three noblemen of Courland having laid a bet 
which of them could drink most spirits, two of them died 
in consequence of suffocation by the fiames which issued 
with great violence from their stomachs. We are told by 
Thomas Bartholin, J on the authority of Vorstius, that a 
I soldier, who had drunk two glasses of spirits, died af~ 
| ter an eruption of fiames from his mouth. In his third 
century Bertholin mentions another accident of the same 
| kind after a drinking-match of strong liquor. 
* German Ephemerldes. Observ. 77 . t Ibid. Tenth year, p. 55. 
t First century . 
