PAT H O L O G Y, 
Catacaufis ebriofa : the combuftibility occaiioned by a 
Jong and immoderate ufe of fpirituous liquors; and pro¬ 
ducing combuftion fpontaneouily. For inftances, fee 
Phil. Tranf. vol. xliii. and lxiv. Journal de Phyflque, 
Pan viii. Le Cat’s Memoires; and the article Burning 
in this work, vol. iii. p. 533. Since thatarticle was print¬ 
ed, we have met with fome cafes more recent and more 
extraordinary than any there related. 
In thevear 1S11, John Heinrich Kopr>, M. D. profeffor 
of cliemiftry at Hanau, pub'ilhed at Frankfort a little 
treatife with the laudable view of exciting attention to 
fpontaneous combuftions of the human body; and espe¬ 
cially as being neceflarily fubjeff to juridical inveftigation. 
Seventeen authenticated cafes of this kind of combuftion 
are related. Sixteen of thefe occurred to females, and 
the feventeenth to a man. This laft has the peculiarity 
of the perfon furviving the accident three days, and of 
his being able to give fome account of the circumftances 
and fenfations by which it was accompanied. The Angu¬ 
larity of this cafe induces us to give a tranflation of it; 
but we regret that it did not come under the immediate 
obfervation of Dr. Kopp; it is cited by him from a Flo¬ 
rentine journal, in which it was inferted by Jofeph Bat¬ 
taglia, a furgeon at Porte Bafto, who attended the pa¬ 
tient. “ Don G. Maria Bertholi, a prieft, who lived on 
Mount Volere, in the neighbourhood of Fivizzani, went 
on bufinefs to a fair at Filetto. After having walked 
about the whole day, he went, toward evening, to Fenile, 
and put up at a relation’s. Immediately after his arrival, 
he retired into his bed-room, and defired to have a hand¬ 
kerchief placed on his back, under his fliirt. In a few' 
minutes after this, being left by himfelf, a Angular noife, 
mingled with cries, was heard from his bed-room. The 
people of the houfe ruftied in, .and found the prieft 
llretched on the floor, furrounded by a fmall lambent 
flame, which retired as the perfons approached, and at 
length entirely vanilhed. He was immediately put to bed, 
and the next morning (fays Battaglia) I vifited him. 
On a careful examination, the integuments on the right 
arm were found loofened from the mufcles, and hanging 
down. Between the ftioulders and thighs the integu¬ 
ments were equally injured. An incipient mortiflcation 
appeared on that part of the right hand which had been 
moft injured. On the fecond day, this part was in a com¬ 
plete ftate of gangrene. On the third day, the mortiflca¬ 
tion had extended to all the injured parts. The patient 
now had excefiive thirft and fever, violent convulflons, 
putrid evacuations from the bowels, conftant vomiting, 
and delirium. On the fourth day, after lying tw'o 
hours in a ftate of torpid fleep, he expired. At my laft 
viflt, during this courfe, I (Battaglia) faw with aftonifti- 
ment that the putrefcence had already made rapid ad¬ 
vances ; the body of the patient emitted a moft infupport- 
able ftench ; worms were feen crawling from him ; and 
the nails fell from his Angers. To the queftion how this 
accident had happened, the patient atifwered, that heflrft 
felt a blow, as with a club, on his right arm ; and had 
obferved, at the fame time, a fpark hanging to his fliirt; 
and that the latter had in a moment been converted into 
allies. The handkerchief, which had been placed on the 
bare Ikin of the Ihoulders, was found entire, and not 
even fcorclied. The drawers he had on were alfo left un¬ 
touched, but the night-cap was quite confumed, though 
not a hair of the head was burned. That this dift’uled 
fire had confumed the Ikin, the fliirt, and the whole night¬ 
cap, without touching the liair, is a faft I (Battaglia) 
can fully warrant. The night, on which this phenome¬ 
non happened, was calm, and the air clear. Not the leaft 
empyreumatic fmell, nor the leaft trace of Are or frnoke, 
was perceived in the room. The lamp, previoufly Ailed 
with oil, was dry, and its cotton incinerated. No exter¬ 
nal caufe can, with probability, be afligned for this de¬ 
plorable accident: if Maffei had ftill been alive, he would 
have availed himfelf of it as a plain proof that a lightning 
proceeds from within and deftroys us; as noticed in the 
29S 
article Burning, quoted above. This is the only in- 
ftance upon record of the calamity having happened to a 
man. 
The laft cafe we (hall mention is one in which two 
perfons were involved in deftruCtion at the fame time. 
It was read to the Medical Society at Paris, by Dr. Char- 
pentier, phyflcian to the royal forces of the marine, at 
Guerigny, near Nevers. “ On the 12th of January, 1820, 
at ten o’clock in the 4 vening, feveral neighbours.of Mrs. 
P. of Nevers, perceived a peculiar odour, which they 
thought flmilar to that of broiled animal matter and 
burning wool, only more difagreeable and naufeous. They 
faw neither frnoke nor vapour iflue from any of the adja¬ 
cent houfes; and at laft, agreeing among themfelves 
that this odour was produced by the burning of the re¬ 
mains of an old Carmelite nun, who had died in the 
neighbourhood that day, they retired to bed withoutma- 
king any further inquiries. On the 13th, in the morning, 
a woman, living near the place, who had a fecond key to 
the door of the houfe. becaufe flie was in the habit of 
going there daily to aftift thefervant in attending on her 
iniftrefs, opened the door to go and perform her ordi¬ 
nary duties. On entering the room, a denfe vapour if- 
fued out, accompanied with an infupportable ftench, that 
almoft fuftocated her. She retreated from the houfe, 
crying out in the moft violent manner for help. The 
neighbours came about her; and, after waiting a few 
moments to let the vapour efcape, they proceeded io exa¬ 
mine the ftate of the room, they found neither Mrs. P. 
nor her fervant. At flrft they faw no appearance of dead 
bodies, but they immediately recognized that Mrs. P.'s 
bed was entirely burned. Its different parts, however, 
preferved their form ; but, on the flighted: touch, it all 
funk away, and the bedftead, mattrefs, feather-bed, 
fheets, blankets, and woollen curtains, were reduced to 
a cinder. Before they ftirred thefe cinders they examined 
the Are-place, in which they found no wmod, nor any 
charcoal, in combuftion : the Are had not been covered, 
and it had probably gone out for want of wood. A can- 
dleftick flood in the Are-place, and another, on the 
ground, in the middlqof the room; there was no candle 
in either of them. 
“ On proceeding to examine the allies, or remains of 
the combuftion, there was found, in front of the fpot 
which had been occupied by the bed, the extremity of a 
leg covered by a flocking, with a (hoe on the foot, and 
which was recognized to be part of the right leg of the 
fervant. It was the only portion of the body of this 
woman that had not been reduced to allies. The cra¬ 
nium of the miftrefs, devoid of thefcalp, v.'hich had been 
burned, was found in a fltuation correfponding with that 
in which the head would be as the woman lay in bed. 
This was the only portion of her body that had not been 
utterly deftroyed by combuftion, excepting a fmall frag¬ 
ment of the neck, or rather the Ikin of the neck, that 
had been enveloped in a red kerchief, and of which there 
were yet fome remains immediately attached to the pre¬ 
ferved portion of the neck. 
“Although the room had no ceiling, the beams and 
rafters, which were very near to the top of the bed were 
not burned ; but they were black, and felt very hot. All 
the tilings about: the room, efpecially fuch as were clofe 
to the bed, were extremely humid; which was owing, 
without doubt, to condenfation of the denfe vapours 
with which the room was Ailed on being flrft entered. A 
wooden clock, hung up againft the wall beflde the bed, 
fell into afltes on the flrft movement. 
“There were no other perfons in the houfe but thefe 
two women. The miftrefs was ninety years old, the fer¬ 
vant Axty-Ax ; they were both of a weak constitution, 
thin and meagre ; their food was bad, although the mif¬ 
trefs had an income of 6000 francs. She, for fome time 
paft, had drunk eau de Cologne to great excefs; and had 
eaten hardly any thing flnce this habitual abufe of 
fpirits. The fervant alio ate but little ; (lie now and then 
took 
