way of trial, it appears that they are electrical bodies, or electrics per se? is it not doubtful, since his fingers must be excited considerably in this experiment, whether he did not communicate electricity to them from his handy rather than excite it in them? Doubtless the principle is inherent in many other bodies besides animal, possibly in all bodies whatever. But as it is allowed that animals have a greater quantity of it residing in them than other substances, there seems room to admit the above doubt.

1

An Extract, by Mr. Paul Rolli, F. R. S. of an Italian Treatise, written by the Rev. Joseph Bianchini, a Prebend in the City of Verona; on the Death of the Countess Cornelia Zangári and Bandi, of Cesena. N° 476, p. 447. 1 The Countess Cornelia Bandi, in the 62d year of her age, was all day as well as she used to be, but at night was observed, when at supper, dull and heavy. She retired, was put to bed, where she passed 3 hours and more in familiar discourses with her maid, and in some prayers; at last, falling asleep, the door was shut. In the morning, the maid taking notice that her mistress did not awake at the usual hour, went into the bed-chamber and called her; but not being answered, doubting of some ill accident, opened the window, and saw the corpse of her mistress in the deplorable condition following:

Four feet distance from the bed there was a heap of ashes, 2 legs untouched, from the foot to the knee, with their stockings on: between them was the lady's head: whose brains, half of the back part of the skull, and the whole chin, were burnt to ashes; among which were found 3 fingers blackened. All the rest was ashes, which had this particular quality, that they left in the hand, when taken up, a greasy and stinking moisture.

The air in the room was also observed cumbered with soot floating in it: a small oil-lamp on the floor was covered with ashes, but no oil in it. 2 Candles in candlesticks on a table stood upright; the cotton was left in both, but the tallow was gone and vanished. Somewhat of moisture was about the feet of the candlesticks. The bed received no damage; the blankets and sheets were only raised on one side, as when a person rises up from it, or goes in; the whole furniture, as well as the bed, was spread over with moist and ash-coloured soot, which had penetrated into the chest-of-drawers, even to foul the linens; nay the soot was also gone into a neighbouring kitchen, and hung on the walls, moveables, and utensils of it. From the pantry a piece of bread covered with that soot, and grown black, was given to several dogs, which refused to eat it. In the room above it was noticed, that from the lower part of the windows trickled down a greasy, loathsome, yellowish liquor; and thereabout they smelt a stink, without knowing of what, and saw the soot fly around.

It was remarkable, that the floor of the chamber was so thickly smeared with a

gluish moisture, that it could not be taken off; and the stench spread more and more through the other chambers.

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Remarks. It is impossible that, by any accident, the lamp should have caused such a conflagration. There is no room to suppose any supernatural cause. The likeliest cause then is a flash of lightning; which, according to the most common opinon, being but a sulphureous and nitrous exhalation from the earth, having been kindled in the air, penetrated either through the chimney, or through the chinks of the windows, and produced that effect. All the abovementioned effects prove the assertion; for those remaining foul particles are the grossest parts of the fulmen, either burnt to ashes, or thickened into a viscous bituminous matter.

In the Acta Medica et Philosophica Hafniensia, published by Thomas Bartholin, 1673, is such another accident related in these words. "A poor woman

at Paris used to drink spirit of wine plentifully for the space of 3 years, so as to take nothing else. Her body contracted such a combustible disposition, that one night she, lying down on a straw couch, was all burned to ashes and smoke, except the skull and the extremities of her fingers."

John Henry Cohausen relates this fact in a book printed at Amsterdam 1717, intitled, Lumen novum Phosphoris accensum, and in the first part p. 92, relates also, "That a Polish gentleman, in the time of the queen Bona Sforza, having drank 2 dishes of a liquor called brandy wine, vomited flames, and was burnt by them."

Remarks. Such an effect was not produced by the light of the oil-lamp, or of any candles; because common fire, even in a pile, does not consume a body to such a degree; and would have besides spread itself to the goods of the chamber, more combustible than a human body. It seems also, that it was not what is commonly taken for a fulmen; for there was not left in the place any sulphureous and nitrous smell; there did not appear any blackish tracks on the walls, all signs of the fulmina, as they have been remarked by the exactest observer of phenomena, the celebrated Mr. Boyle. But if it was not a real fulmen, it was certainly of such a nature.

The author's opinion is, that the fire was caused in the entrails of the body by inflamed effluvia of her blood, by juices and fermentations in the stomach, by the many combustible matters which are abundant in living bodies for the uses of life; and, finally, by the fiery evaporations which exhale from the settlings of spirit of wine, brandies, and other hot liquors, in the tunica villosa of the stomach, and other adipose or fat membranes, within which, as chemists observe, those spirits engender a kind of camphor; which, in the night-time, in sleep, by a full breathing and respiration, are put in a stronger motion, and consequently more apt to be set afire.

į

Proofs.-Fat is an oily liquid separated from the blood by the glands of the membrana adiposa; and it is of an easily combustible nature, as common experience shows. Our blood is of such a nature: as also our lymph and bile; all which, when dried by art, flame like spirit of wine at the approach of the least fire, and burn away into ashes. Such a drying up of matters may be caused in our body by drinking rectified brandy, and strong wines; as Mons. Litre observed in the dissection of a woman 45 years old, in the History of the Royal Academy of Sciences, 1706, p. 23. Which effect may oftener happen, if the spirit of wine has any mixture of camphor; for that liquor is but a sublimated oil, whose sulphureous particles, being attenuated by the fermentation, when separated from fixed and salt matters, are easily put in motion, and, rolling through the air, become flame and fire.

Besides, though the salts which are in living and vegetable creatures are not naturally inclined to kindle, yet they often contribute to it, particularly when there is joined some strong boiling fermentation. It is from such a cause that we know how the mixture of two liquors, though cold to the touch, produces a flaming fire. Becher was the first discoverer of this marvellous phenomenon, by mixing oil of vitriol with that of turpentine. Borrichius afterwards did the same, by mixing oil of tupentine with aquafortis; and at last Mons. Tournefort, by joining spirit of nitre with the oil of sassafras; and Mons. Homberg with this acid spirit, together with the oil and quintessences of all the aromatic Indian herbs; nay, Mr. Homberg asserts, that with a certain cold water cannons were fired, Anno 1710, in the aforesaid History of the Academy of Sciences, p. 66. It is out of question how, by a strong fermentation, magazines of gunpowder, barns, paper-mills, and haycocks, have been set on fire.

nay

The acid particles in our bodies are much united with the fat and oily parts; all our limbs abound with oil and acid. What wonder then if they kindle? as Mr. Homberg well observes, in the aforesaid history, 1712, 1717, from P. 13 to 31, where he takes notice, that all our limbs have abundance of fetid oil, and volatile salt, and therefore easily combustible.

We ought not to omit how the teeth are formed by so many short tubes, the bones by long ones, and easier therefore to be set on fire. Malpighi observed. also, that the bones contain a fat oily matter. Besides all this, we know that the sebaceous glands are spread all over the body, and that an oily moisture, with now and then a nitrous sulphureous smell, perspires from our skin, to which, Dr. Blancard ascribes the whole circulation. Abundance of combustible matter, shut up in a great number of cells, lies in the omentum.

There is further to be considered the vast quantity of effluvia that emanate from our bodies. Sanctorius observed that, of 8 lb. of food and drink in a day, there is an insensible perspiration of about 5; computing with them those effluvia

which go out of the mouth by breathing, and which might be gathered in drops on a looking-glass. As also, that in the space of one night, it is customary to discharge about 16 ounces of urine, 4 of concocted excrements by stool, and 40 and more by perspiration [Aphor. 59]. He teaches also, that numbness is an effect of too much internal heat, by which is prevented such an insensible transpiration as is proved. On this supposition, that the effluvia of such an insensible transpiration are an inflammable mine, easily apt to kindle, whenever a friction, be it ever so small, puts them in quick motion, and increases their velocity. We acknowledge the discovery of this evident truth from Mr. Hauksbee, in the experiment of the glass globe, p. 30.

The friction of the palms of our hands, or of any other parts of our body, may produce those fires commonly called ignes lambentes. We learn of Eusebius Nierembergius, that such was the property of all the limbs of the father of Theodoricus: such were those of Charles Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua, as Bartholin notices. By the testimony of John Fabri, M. D. a noted philosopher, who saw it, sparkles of light flashed out of the head of a woman, while she combed her hair. Scaliger relates the same of another woman. Cardanus, of a Carmelite Monk, whose head continued 13 years to flash out sparkles, every time he tossed his cowl on his shoulders. Ezekiel à Castro, M. D. a famous Jew, and afterwards a Christian, wrote a little treatise, entitled, Ignis Lambens; on the occasion that the Countess Cassandra Buri, of Verona, when she rubbed her arms with a cambric handkerchief, all the skin shined with a very bright light. Eusebius relates the same of Maximus Aquilanus. Licetus heard his father say, that he saw the same quality on Francis Guido, a civilian; and that he himself knew Antony Cianfio, a bookseller in Pisa, who, when he shifted, shined all over with great brightness. Libavius relates the same of a youth; and Cardanus of a friend of his; saying, that, when he shifted, clear sparkles of fire shot from his body. Father Kircher, a Jesuit, relates, that going in company into a subterranean grotto at Rome, saw sparkles of fire evaporate from the heads of his companions,. become warm by walking. Father Alphonso d'Ovale was eye-witness on the highest mountains of Peru and Chili, how both men and beasts there seem shining with the brightest light from top to toe.

These flames seem harmless, but it is only for want of proper fuel. Peter Bovisteau asserts, that such sparkles reduced to ashes the hair of a young man. John de Viana, in his treatise entitled, De Peste Malagensi, p. 46, relates how the wife of Dr. Freilas, physician to Cardinal de Royas, Archbishop of Toledo, sent forth naturally, by perspiration, a fiery matter, of such a nature, that if the roller that she wore over her shift was taken from her, and exposed to the cold air, it immediately was kindled, and shot forth like grains of gunpowder.*

* Pet. Borelli gives an instance of such effluvia not only producing light, but likewise fire. See

The author even asserts, that a feverish fermentation, or a very strong motion of combustible matters, may rise in the womb of a woman, with such an igneous strength, as to reduce to ashes the bones, and burn the flesh. Two such cases are known, one in the Acta Medica et Philosophica Hafniensia, Anno 1673, by the observation of Matt. Jacobei; and the other in M. Marcell. Donato, de Medic. Hist. Mirab. lib. 4, cap. 25, p. 248, et lib. 7, Cosmog. c. 1, of Cornel. Gemma. He says also, that the bile, which is a necessary juice for our digestion, was observed by Peter Borelli, that, being vomited up by a man, it boiled like aquafortis. [Centur. 2, Obs. 1, p. 109].

Besides, very strong fires may be kindled in our bodies, as well as in other animals of a hot temperament, not only by nature, but also by art; which, being able to kill, will serve for a better proof of the argument. See also the 77th observation of John Pisano, in the German Ephemerides, printed in Lipsic 1670. Tie the upper orifice of the stomach of an animal with a string; tie also its lower orifice; then cut it out above and below the ligatures, and press it with both hands, so that it swells up in one side; which done; let the left hand keep it so that the swelled part may not subside; and, with the right, having first, at an inch distance, placed a candle, open it quickly with an anatomical knife, and you will see a flame there conceived, coming out in a few seconds of time: and such a flame may, by the curious, be perceived not only in the stomach, but also in the intestines. The first discoverer of this was Andrew Vulparius, Anatomy Professor at Bologna in Italy 1669. Thus we see, that a quick and violent agitation of spirits, or a fermentation of juices in the stomach, produces a visible flame. Pisano was an eye-witness of the above-related operation.

In the German Ephemerides, Anno 10, p. 53, of the continuation by John Christopher Sturmius, we read, that often, in the northern countries, flames evaporate from the stomachs of those who drink strong liquors plentifully. About 17 years before, says the author, 3 noblemen of Curland, drank by emulation strong liquors; and 2 of them died scorched and suffocated by a flame issuing from the stomach.

Borelli relates how a woman vomited flames in the point of death: you may read, says he, in Bartolinus de Luce, and in Eusebius Nierembergensis's History Nat. peregrin. how such accidents often happened in great drinkers of wine and brandy: where is related also, how fire issued from the privy parts of a woman. Lord Bacon, in his Nat. Univ. Hist. assures us that he had seen a woman's belly

his Obs. Cent. 2, Obs. 75, p. 174, where he says, that there was a certain peasant, whose linen, hempen thread, &c. if laid up in boxes, though wet, or hung upon sticks in the air, soon took fire; which has been seen by a great number of spectators.-Orig.

* To inflame this air, it is necessary it should issue into, or be mixed with common atmospherieal air.