On spontaneous combustion / by Alexander Ogston.

  • Ogston, Alexander, 1844-1929.
Date:
[1870]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On spontaneous combustion / by Alexander Ogston. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Eontanelle, that portions of flesh soaked in alcohol will burn only so long as the alcohol burns in them, and asserting that the com¬ bustion of such a structure as the human body, containing 75 per cent, of water, is an absolute impossibility without the aid of a large amount of neighbouring combustible material. The works of the last-mentioned writers have given to the subject all the features it presents at present, and have stamped upon the minds of those who have, in recent years, adverted to the question, the tendency to incredulity observable in the treatises on legal medicine of Stille, Guy, and Taylor. One fact, however, is rather remarkable, that none of those who totally disbelieve in the idea of spontaneous combustion, profess to have seen a single case analogous to those observed by its supporters. There cannot be the least doubt that the weight of authority is in favour of sj)ontaneous ignition, or, at least, of increased combusti¬ bility, two modes of viewing the subject, which have been generally combined under the title of spontaneous combustion, or empresmus. Of all the fifty-four writers on the subject whom I have been able to discover, tlie opinions of thirty-five of these are contained in the sources to which I have had access. Of these thirty-five writers, five are entirely sceptical, viz. Drs. Caldwell, Caspar, and Taylor, and the chemists Bischoff and Liebig; three believe in increased com¬ bustibility, viz. Dupuytren, Stille, and Guy; while the remaining twnnty-seven, including the illustrious names previously mentioned, believe in the spontaneous ignitability of the human body. Many theories have been framed to account for such a supposed occurrence. The most prevalent has been that held by the earlier waiters, and supported by Orfila, Todere, Gordon Smith, Paris, Briand, &c. &c., that, under certain circumstances, the body is capable of generating under the skin, and in the connective tissue and cavities of the body, hydrogen or other gases similar to those formed in tlie intestines, and that the electrical condition of the body can sometimes ignite these gases. What these gases are has not been clearly stated; Gordon Smith being of the opinion that carburetted hydrogen was the chief compound, and others, such as Averardi and Apjohn, believing it to be phosphuretted hydrogen. Another theory, advocated by Lair, Bitter, Kiihn, and Mitchell, and based on the fact that most of the victims of this occurrence have been drunkards is, that alcohol was present in their blood to such an extent as to be combustible. 'Now Liebig and IkischolF say that alcohol cannot be present in the blood and tissues without coagulating their albumen. But this is not true; I myself have seen cases of death from alcoholic poisoning, or in people under the influence of alcoliol, where the smell was strong in the blood, and sometimes so marked in the ventricles- of the brain, that it was possible to ascertain the nature of the beverage used. Chemistry