This publication appeared on the pages of the scientific and literary magazine "Vilensky Diary" in 1805. Its author is Andrzej Snyadecki (1768-1838), professor of chemistry and medicine at the Imperial University of Vilnius, also known for his participation in the activities of the literary educational society of the Shubravites. At that time, two interesting publications were made by him on the pages of the mentioned edition. One of them dealt with the topic of imaginary death, the second - the question of spontaneous combustion of people, a phenomenon that remains mysterious to this day. The translation of the latter as a bibliographic rarity is presented to your attention. The article perfectly testifies that practically nothing has changed on the issue under discussion since the beginning of the 19th century. What was discussed by the scientific community two centuries ago is now periodically repeated at the level of tabloid publications.
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Publication by A. Snyadetsky.
In an age of widespread success in science and enlightenment, we are accustomed to neglecting messages from the common people, as well as the ideas widely accepted by them on faith, although these messages and ideas are often based on experience and undeniable observation. True, the gullibility of common people and a natural inclination to things extraordinary or incomprehensible transforms such observations, giving them the appearance of completely fabulous stories. However, they, as a rule, have a solid foundation in nature and, rather, are worthy of thoughtful and philosophical analysis, rather than contempt. Scientists who live for the most part in cities, or are closed within their offices, have much less opportunities to learn about natural events than ordinary people who always live, as I say, in the bosom of nature and who,not being able to systematically explain certain things for himself, he presents them as he sees. And we tend to stubbornly deny anything that is inconsistent with our scientific biases. The most obvious and fresh example of this we have with meteorite stones, or, as they say, fell from the sky, in which not a single scientist believed a few years ago, but about which we now have no doubts.
There are few people in our country who have never heard from the people about the ignition of vodka in simpletons to drunkenness of devotees. We, as a rule, take such news for fairy tales and do not pay attention to them. However, I remember well how I myself happened to be an eyewitness of such an event at a very young age, and how diligently old women for the ambulance poured fresh urine into the throat of the unfortunate man, trying to extinguish this terrible fire. Unfortunately, at that age I could neither perceive this event properly, nor appreciate its significance. But the letter of Mr. Lair 1, who also witnessed similar incidents and obtained them from other authors, struck me a lot, and I would like my fellow countrymen to think about it as well. For we ought to have collected a multitude of similar and carefully made observations,in order to properly understand the nature of such a fire, which could shed a lot of light on animal economy. If where such events can be frequent, then it is probably here, where, unfortunately, the poorest stratum of people, especially in cities and towns, is completely devoted to the vice of drunkenness. Then urging my compatriots to collect and correctly describe such cases, I decided to outline in brief what we know about this subject so far.what we know about this subject so far.what we know about this subject so far.
Be that as it may, it may seem unacceptable for taking on faith that living people could engage in fire and burn to ashes. However, experience undoubtedly shows that such events, quite rare, can sometimes occur. Omitting the dubious news that can be gathered here and there among the people, Bianchini, Maffa, Rolli, Lecat and Vicq d'Azyr give similar examples. One of the most recent cases of this kind is described in the Recueil periodique an VIII. Ventose p. 485, where a woman who had been seen and heard walking two hours earlier was found completely burnt in her bed. All muscles and bones of the abdomen and chest ceased into real coal, exuding an unbearable stench. The arms and legs were much less damaged by the fire, in any case, only one leg remained of a natural color. The head was completely burnt and swollen, and still rested on a part of the body. It was impossible to establish the reasons and the beginning of such an incident, and from the available information it is only known that this woman was old and had long been drawn into the vile vice of drunkenness.
The second such example we find in the Philosophical Journal in No. 532. On March 16, 1802, at night in one city of Massachusetts in America, the body of an old woman itself decomposed and deteriorated due to the internal and unknown reason, within an hour and a half. Some of her family members were already asleep at this time, others were absent. Only this old woman was awake, doing the housework. One of her grandchildren, returning home, found a burning floor near the fireplace. He immediately woke up the others, and everyone ran to extinguish the fire that had begun. But during this lesson, they found special traces of combustion by the fireplace and the adjacent part of the floor, which were covered with a thick layer of greasy soot and ash, along with obvious remains of a human body. The whole room was filled with a special and extreme stench, and the old woman herself disappeared.
Sometimes such a fire does not cover the whole body, being limited to only one part of it; arms and legs are usually left intact or little affected. Most often, even if it reaches the highest degree, the flame itself is not shown, and the body is only exterminated by heat. Sometimes, however, a faint and running light is seen, which alternately fades out and appears again, imitating, as it were, the burning of alcohol. Water not only does not extinguish it, but in some cases even noticeably enhances it, which is characteristic not only of this type of combustion, but also in the case of oily and fatty substances.
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But the following circumstance deserves much more attention: such a fire weakly touches or does not touch at all other flammable objects with which it comes in contact, such as bed, linen or clothes. M. Leir attributes this in part to the weakness of fire, which is like burning fluids; partly by corruption, which slowly, like a pyrophore, the body absorbs; part of the nature of animal bodies that exude little volatile and flammable vapors from themselves, and when completely burned, only fatty and fetid ash is left. But these explanations are not and cannot be sufficient, since both the alcohol flame and the slowly smoldering pyrophor ignite adjacent combustible objects; and all parts of the animals, decomposed by fire, give off a lot of smelly and volatile oils,which are capable of expanding combustion to a considerable distance and throwing fire to the nearest objects. If such phenomena are real, then perhaps their explanation should be left for some time, when more reliable and clear evidence will help to understand their nature.
People who were burned in this way were usually possessed for a long time by the vice of drunkenness; and between them, especially those who were in the habit of drinking vodka or similar moonshine were subjected to such misfortune. Leir, trying to explain how this bad habit can make human bodies combustible, dwells separately on the fact that people prone to drunkenness take little food, and if they do, they usually use spicy and spicy foods; their urine is watery, and the wine fluids themselves, like most of the volatile substances, are not digested. Thus, the muscles, that is, all the soft and fat parts, can gradually be saturated with them. We are convinced of this by people dying from drunkenness, whose bodies retain the smell of alcohol for a long time after death; We are also convinced by the approach to the opoyts, which can be recognized by smell from afar. Allowing such a saturation of the body with fluids, one must also admit two necessary conditions. The first is that the fibrous animal parts are dried out by the fluids, but the fatty ones are not touched and are deprived of any moisture, thus both the former and the latter are adapted to ignition. The second is that alcoholic vapors saturate all parts and from the body in the form of an invisible coming out with ease even from a distant fire, and they can spread fire throughout the body.that alcoholic vapors saturate all parts and from the body in the form of an invisible coming out with ease even from a distant fire and can spread the fire throughout the body.that alcoholic vapors saturate all parts and from the body in the form of an invisible coming out with ease even from a distant fire and can spread the fire throughout the body.
All of the above cases occurred only with women, and then in old age. However, I understand that not only women are susceptible to such a fate. The incident that I witnessed in my youth happened with a man, and such things should surely happen. But all the descriptions available so far mention only women, their flesh should be much more susceptible to such cases than men. Leir attributes this tendency to the tenderness of women's tissues and the plump looseness of their bodies, which is more conducive to alcohol saturation. If only older women have had a fire, this should be attributed to a greater addiction to alcohol at that age. Each of us has a passion that drives us. Those, then, whose hobbies of youth to old age do not find continuation, who do not know the sweetness of the sciences or who are pursued by misfortunes,they seek consolation in drinking and are sometimes given to them without measure.
But the most important question for solving in this matter is the following: does a fire in such people flare up by itself? or is it thrown on them from the nearest burning objects? Leir, already mentioned several times, is more inclined to the latter assumption, arguing that all people who burned in this way were close to the fire, that you can often see the ignition from a close candle of the breath of people drunk with vodka, that the evaporation coming out of alcohol-soaked bodies easily ignites from a nearby flame and leads to their fire. And although observers who assure of the independent occurrence of such a fire are trustworthy, although there are enough examples of such ignitions in the plant kingdom, although, finally, the author himself gives examples of opoyts who exhale a flame from themselves, however, it is impossible to understandhow such a fire can turn a whole body to ashes. This position of the author cannot be justified in any way and is much more surprising; for it will also be difficult to understand how a fire that flares up in a body can completely destroy a living body. But the author had to adhere to the theory he accepted. For in attributing the reason for the appearance of this fire to fluids that cannot ignite either by themselves or from the temperature characteristic of the human body, it was necessary to refer to the help of an external source. Thus, Mr. Leir's explanation does not stand up to criticism either from the point of view of physiology or physics. In physiology - because it is a free assumption that wine fluids are not processed by the body; and even if it were so, then they, as an alien substance, would sooner or later be removed from the animal body,which their volatility itself should contribute. In physics - because it is not typical for fluids to form an atmosphere that could ignite from several to several tens of degrees.
Without going into the explanation of this not yet sufficiently recognized phenomenon, it seems as if it is possible to establish confidently only that there are cases when animal bodies either by themselves or from a nearby fire ignite and can completely burn out; and also that this phenomenon is worth the attention of educated people who could collect and carefully describe for us a larger number of observations. Judges who, if they had before them someone accused of maliciously burning someone, should know that such cases can happen on their own. Drunkards must have a terrible end before their eyes, to which they endanger themselves.
Known for his medical publications, Mr Swediaur3 assures that such spontaneous combustion is not as rare as previously thought. In his travels to the northern countries, he became convinced that vodka drinkers are very often susceptible to such cases. Those who are in danger of such misfortune are helped by abundant glutinous drinks and milk, and those already on fire are saved everywhere among the people with fresh urine, which they are forced to drink.
Andrzej Snyadecki
