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Chap. VII: Caen

The other instance mentioned in the Journal de Medicine, took place at Caen, and is thus related by Merille, a surgeon of that city, still alive: "Being requested, on the 3d of June, 1782, by the king's officers, to draw up a report of the state in which I found Mademoiselle Thuars, who was said to have been burnt, I made the following observations:- The body lay with the crown of the head resting against one of the hand-irons, at the distance of eighteen inches from the fire, the remainder of the body was placed obliquely before the chimney, the whole being nothing but a mass of ashes. Even the most solid bones had lost their form and consistence; none of them could be distinguished except the coronal, the two parietal bones, the two lumbar vertebræ, a portion of the tibia, and a part of the omoplate; and even these were so calcined, that they became dust by the least pressure. The right foot was found entire, and scorched at its upper junction, the left was more burnt. The day was cold, but there was nothing in the grate, except two or three bits about an inch diameter, burnt in the middle. None of the furniture in the apartment was damaged. The chair on which Mademoiselle Thuars had been sitting, was found at the distance of a foot from her, and absolutely untouched. I must here observe, that this lady was exceedingly corpulent, that she was about sixty years of age, and much addicted to spirituous liquors; that the day of her death she had drunk three bottles of wine, and about a bottle of brandy; and that the consumption of the body had taken place in less than seven hours, though, according to appearance, nothing around the body was burnt but the clothes."

The town of Caen affords several other instances of the same kind. I have been told by many people, and particularly a physician of Argentan, named Bouffet, author of an Essay on Intermittent Fevers, that a woman of the lower class, who lived at Place Villars, and who was known to be much addicted to strong liquors, had been found in her house burnt. The extremities of her body only were spared, but the furniture was very little damaged.

The town of Caen records the history of another old woman, addicted to drinking. I was assured, by those who told me the fact, that the flames which proceeded from the body, could not be extinguished by water: but I think it needless to relate this, and the particulars of another event which took place in the same town, because they were not attested by a procés verbal, and not having been communicated by professional men, they do not inspire the same degree of confidence.

This collection of instances is supported, therefore, by all those authentic proofs, which can be required to form human testimony; for while we admit the prudent doubt of Descartes, we ought to reject the universal doubt of the Pyrrhonists. The multiplicity and uniformity even of these acts, which occurred in different places, and were attested by so many enlightened men, carry with them conviction; they have such a relation to each other, that we are inclined to ascribe them to the same cause.

Difficulties would, no doubt, be offered from reasoning against these facts; but the writer remarks, that human testimony is not to be rejected, unless the probability that the facts must be impossible, shall be greater than that arising from the concurrence of evidence: and he adds, that the narratives, though varying so widely as to time and place, do very remarkably agree in their tenor. The circumstances are, that, (1) The combustion has usually destroyed ne person y reducing the body to a mass of pulverulent fatty matter, esembling ashes. (2) There were no signs of combustion in urrounding bodies, by which it could be occasioned, as these ere little, if at all, injured; though, (3) The combustion did not seem to be so perfectly spontaneous, but that some slight cause, such as the fire of a pipe, or a taper, or a candle, seems to have begun it. (4) The persons were generally much addicted to the use of spirituous liquors; were very fat; in most instances women, and old. (5) The extremities, such as the legs, hands, or cranium, escaped the fire. (6) Water, instead of extinguishing the fire, gave it more activity, as happens when fat is burned. (7) The residue was oily and fetid ashes, with a greasy soot, of a very penetrating and disagreeable smell. The theory of the author may be considered as hypothetical, until maturer observations shall throw more light on the subject. The principal fact is, that charcoal and oil, or fat, are known in some instances to take fire spontaneously, and he supposes the carbon of the alcohol to be deposited in the fat parts of the human system, and to produce this effect. CURIOSITIES RESPECTING MAN.-(Continued.) BIOGRAPHICAL.

John Elwes-Daniel Dancer-Henry Wolby-John Henley- Simon Brown, and his Curious Dedication to Queen Caroline -Edward Wortley Montague-Blaise Pascal-Old Parr- George Psalmanazar-John Case-John Lewis Cardiac-John Smeaton-George Morland-Henry Christian Heinecken- Thomas Topham-Zeuxis.

JOHN ELWES.- The family name of this extraordinary miser was Meggot, which he altered in pursuance of the will of Sir Harvey Elwes, his uncle, who left him at least £250,000, and he was possessed of nearly as much of his own. At this time he attended the most noted gaming houses, and after sitting up a whole night at play for thousands, he would proceed to Smithfield to meet his cattle, which were coming to market from his seat in Essex, and there would he stand disputing with a cattle-butcher for a shilling. If the cattle did not arrive, he would walk on to meet them; and more than once he has gone the whole way to his farm without stopping, which was seventeen miles from London. He would walk in the rain in London sooner than pay a shilling for a coach; sit in wet clothes, to save the expense of a fire; eat his provisions in the last stage of putrefaction; and he wore a wig for a fortnight, which he picked up in a lane. In 1774 he was chosen knight of the shire for Berkshire, and his conduct in parliament was perfectly independent. He died in 1789, aged about 77, leaving a fortune of £500,000, besides entailed estates. Another extraordinary miser was DANIEL DANCER. He was born in 1716, near Harrow, in Middlesex. In 1736 he