Spontaneous Human. Notwithstanding the difficulty with which the animal body is consumed by fire in its ordinary state, in certain circumstances it has been observed to become so inflammable as to undergo a kind of spontaneous combustion. The following cases of this strange but fortunately rare occurrence may be quoted to show the nature of the phenomena.

A woman about 60 years of age, in the county of Down, Ireland, retired to bed one evening with her daughter, both in a state of intoxication, as was their constant habit. A little before day-break some members of the family were awakened by an extremely offensive smell that pervaded the house, and which was observed to proceed from the apartment in which the old woman and her daughter lay. The smoke was found to proceed from the body of the old woman, which appeared to be burning with internal fire. The body was as black as coal, and the smoke appeared to proceed from every part of it. The combustion was arrested with difficulty, though there was no flame. Her daughter, who slept in the same bed, sustained no injury; nor did the combustion extend to the bed or bed-clothes, which were quite uninjured, though stained with the smoke. This case is also related by Dr. Apjohn.

From the various cases which have been recorded, both by British and foreign writers, it appears that the victims of this strange affection were mostly females advanced in life, and addicted to indulgence in spirituous liquors; that the combustion spread with extreme rapidity; the flame, when present, was of a lambent and flickering nature, very difficult to extinguish by water, and not readily communicable to inflammable bodies placed near it; that a strong empyreumatic odour was exhaling, and a fetid moist sooty deposit generally remained on the furniture of the apartment; and lastly, that the trunk alone was usually consumed, while portions of the head and limbs were commonly left uninjured.

Several theories have been suggested to explain this curious phenomenon. By some it has been attributed to the alcoholic impregnation of the body by the continued indulgence in spirituous liquors; it being a known fact that the bodies of drunkards yield on distillation a considerable quantity of alcohol; and that it has even been discovered in the substance of the brain. This impregnation, however, would not of itself account for the fact, inasmuch as animal matter steeped in alcohol will not become reduced to ashes even though set fire to, without the aid of combustibles. M. Mare, a French physician, supposes the phenomenon to be caused by the generation of inflammable gaseous products within the tissues of the body; and provided one of these gaseous products were oxygen, it is quite conceivable that such might lead to the combustion of the body. As phosphorus occurs as a large constituent of some of the tissues, if we suppose that phosphuretted hydrogen (a gas which takes fire whenever it comes in contact with the oxygen of the air), is the inflammable gas generated, and that it fills the bowels and pervades the tissues, it would both account for the rapidity and spontaneity of the combustion. It must, however, be confessed that as yet the cause of this strange occurrence has not been satisfactorily ascertained.