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Chap. Lxxxiv

MISCELLANEOUS CURIOSITIES.-(Continued.) Spontaneous Inflammation-Diseases peculiar to Particular Countries-Injuries from Swallowing the Stones of Fruits-Extraordinary Surgical Operation-Extraordinary Cures by Burning -Illumination by Electricity-Divisibility of Matter. SPONTANEOUS INFLAMMATION. -A paper on this subject, which appeared in the Repertory of Arts, vol. ii. p. 425, induced the Rev. W. Tooke to publish some remarks in vol. iii. p. 95, of that work, from which the following is an extract, respecting the spontaneous inflammation of animal and vegetable substances. "One Rüde, (says he,) an apothecary at Bautzen, had prepared a pyrophorus from rye-bran and alum. Not long after he had made the discovery, there broke out, in the next village of Nauslitz, a great fire, which did much mischief, and was said to have been occasioned by the treating of a sick cow in the cow-house. Mr. Rüde knew that the countrymen were accustomed to lay an application of parched rye-bran to their cattle, for curing the thick neck; he knew also that alum and rye-bran, by a proper process, yielded a pyrophorus; and now, to try whether parched rye-bran alone would have the same effect, he roasted a quantity of it by the fire, till it had acquired the colour of roasted coffee. This roasted bran he wrapped up in a linen cloth; in a few minutes there arose a strong smoke, with a smell of burning. Soon after, the rag grew as black as tinder, and the bran, now become hot, fell through it on the ground in little balls. Mr. Rüde repeated the experiment, and always with the same result. Who now will doubt, that the frequency of fires in cowhouses, which in those parts are mostly wooden buildings, is occasioned by this practice, of binding roasted bran about the necks of the cattle?"

Montet relates, in the Memoirés de l'Académie de Paris, 1748, that animal substances kindle into flame; and that he himself has been witness to the spontaneous accension of dunghills. The woollen stuff prepared at Sevennes, named Emperor's stuff, has kindled of itself, and burnt to a coal. It is usual for this to happen to woollen stuffs, when in hot summers they are laid in a heap, in a room but little aired. In June, 1781, this harpened at a woolcomber's in Germany, where a heap of wool-combings, piled up in a close warehouse seldom aired, took fire of itself. This wool burnt from within outwards, and became quite a coal; though neither