118

HUMAN VOLCANO.

three fingers, and legs, which remained entire, with shoesand stockings on. The ashes were light, and on pressurebetween the fingers vanished, leaving a gross offensivemoisture, with which the floor was smeared; the walls andfurniture of the room covei'ed with moist unctuous soot,which had also stained the linen in the chest, as well aspenetrated into a closet; it had also ascended into an upperroom, the walls of that also being mbfstened with the sameviscous and highly offensive matter. Mem. de Tret. an.1731. p. 1293.

The third we shall mention, occurred in this country.Grace Pet, of Ipswich , Suffolk , aged 60, in 1744, whohad previously drank a large quantity of spirituous liquor :the trunk of her body was found incinerated, resemblinga heap of coals, covered with white ashes, and emittingan extremely foetid odour and smoke.

The fourth case is that of Mary Clues, of Coventry, aged52, in 1772, who was so much addicted to intoxication, thatscarcely a day passed in which she did not drink, at least, apint of rum, or aniseed water. In her case, nothing remainedof the skin, the bones, and the viscera; the bones of thecranium, the breast, the spine, and the upper extremitieswere entirely consumed ; a most disagreable vapour hadexuded from the apartment where the combustion occurred.

The fifth is a similar instance, mentioned by Yief <T Azyr,in the Encyclop. Methodique ; a woman, about the same ageas the last, indulged in excessive spirituous liquors, wentto bed every night intoxicated,— was found reduced toashes.

Le Cat, in a memoir on spontaneous burning, mentionsmany other instances of combustion of the human body.Two facts of a similar kind are stated in the Journal deMedicine, vol. lix. p. 440.

Among other instances, besides the preceding, there isone recorded by Dr. Swediaur, of some persons at War-saw, who had drank abundantly of malt spirits, and felldown in the street with smoke issuing from their mouths:the people who came to their assistance said they wouldtake fire; to prevent which, they poured down their throatslarge quantities of milk ; and, it is presumed to get theoffensive matter from the stomach, drenched them with aconsiderable portion of fresh made human urine. Whichcases are likewise mentioned by M. le Lair, in his memoirto the Philosophic Society at Paris ; from whence that authorreduces circumstances of this description to the followingheads : 1st. The persons who have been the victims weregenerally much addicted to vicious excess in drinking of