Experimental biologist Brian J. Ford assures that he has finally found the cause of spontaneous combustion of people. What he and his colleagues first reported in the specialized magazine The Microscope, and then in the popular science New Scientist.
For the first time, he learned about the fact that people can ignite by themselves and burn in a matter of minutes 30 years ago. Then I came across an article about this in some foreign magazine. And forever engraved in the memory of a terrible photograph from him - a leg in a black shoe.
This is all that remains of the elderly 79-kilogram American Mary Reaser, who was burned down on July 1, 1951 in St. Petersburg (Florida). A leg and a pile of ashes were found in the morning by a son who came to visit. The handle of the door to his mother's room, which he tried to open, was still hot …
The stopped clock showed the time at which the ignition occurred - 4 hours 20 minutes in the morning. Mary was dozing in an armchair. It also burned down - to the springs. And nothing else was touched by the fire - not even the newspapers lying nearby. No traces of soot were found on the walls and ceiling; the smell of smoke was barely felt.
“This is the most amazing sight I've ever seen,” admitted later Dr. Wilton Krogman, a medical examiner at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine who was involved in the investigation. - It is impossible to understand how the intense burning of the body did not cause an extensive fire. A fire of such power would inevitably destroy the premises and the entire environment in it.
Scientists have established the main thing: no one set fire to the woman.
Now the case with Mary Reaser is considered the classic appearance of the nightmare phenomenon, called spontaneous human combustion (Spontaneous Human Combustion - SHC)
Most scientists believe that he is a phenomenon. Back in 1870, a brochure was published at the University of Aberdeen (Scotland). Its authors analyzed the attitude of colleagues to the mysterious phenomenon - from among those who tried to understand it. Only eight out of 35 considered it a hoax, and in documented cases they suspected arson. The rest did not doubt that people are capable of catching fire on their own.
Promotional video:
The death toll from SHC is not large - about 120 cases worldwide for the entire time of the documented record. Which is extremely small. And this, by the way, gave grounds to assert that an equally rare phenomenon is to blame for the phenomenon - ball lightning. Like, it burns out people, somehow penetrating the body. But this hypothesis has not received any serious confirmation.
It is reliably known that only one person “became famous” in Russia - the shepherd Bisen Mamaev. On November 11, 1990, he burned down in a field on the border of the Saratov and Volgograd regions. His remains were found by his brother. The internal organs of the shepherd were scorched by the fire, the skin was slightly charred and the underwear was burnt. And the outerwear remained almost intact. Vadim Chernobrov, the leader of the Cosmopoisk research group, who visited the site of the tragedy, told me about this mysterious incident.
Photo: ural.kp.ru
Alcoholics rehabilitated
So what makes people ignite? What's burning in them?
For a long time, quite serious researchers believed that only alcoholics ignite spontaneously. And alcohol blazes, overwhelming their bodies. However, the first scientist who undertook to test this hypothesis experimentally was convinced of its inconsistency. German Jastus von Leibig found out that even well-alcoholized tissues do not flare up. Moreover, he directly injected 70 percent alcohol into dead rats - they did not burn.
The “wick hypothesis” is still popular and has not been completely rejected. Or a "living candle". It was first put forward back in 1961 by London physician Gavin Thurston in the Medico-Legal Journal. He believed that a person in clothes becomes a wick. The man is on fire. And the fat melted at this time keeps the flame alive. Until everything burns out.
The "dressed" pig burned well, but for a long time. And it flared up with difficulty
Photo: ural.kp.ru
How "wicks" are blazing was twice shown on TV in popular science programs of the BBC - in 1986 and 1998. Demonstrated on cloth-wrapped pork carcasses. The carcasses were on fire. But for a very long time - up to 12 hours. And the "clothes" on them were not preserved. And the carcasses themselves did not turn into heaps of ash, as happened with people who were burned in a hellish flame.
Caution ketosis
“No, the" wick hypothesis "does not work, says Brian Ford. - It does not explain all the features of the phenomenon. And alcohol, for which they sinned before, is irrelevant. If only because it does not accumulate. On the contrary, it is broken down by metabolism.
And yet, as Ford explains, a highly flammable substance can appear in the body. Which is also capable of accumulating. This is acetone.
The production of acetone in the metabolic process begins when the blood glucose decreases - the main source of energy in the human body. The deficit leads to the fact that alternative mechanisms are activated. Fat cells begin to break down. A chain of biochemical reactions, for which the liver is responsible, ultimately leads to the fact that special substances - the so-called ketones - enter the bloodstream. They become food sources and energy carriers instead of glucose.
Acetone is a type of ketone. Its accumulation is promoted by some diets that cause the so-called ketosis. Diseases like diabetes also lead.
An excess of a combustible substance in the body causes spontaneous combustion, the scientist believes. He tested this by “pickling” pieces of pork in acetone.
From the pieces, Ford made scale models of human bodies. I put them on. And set it on fire. Burned to the ground in less than half an hour. The clothes remained intact in places. The limbs have also been preserved. Just like in the photo of the victims of spontaneous combustion.
- We believe: legs and arms remain, as they have too little fat, and acetone accumulates in insufficient quantities, - the experimenter says.
Of course, the question remains open, where does the spark from which the infernal flame come from? Here Ford has no clear opinion. He only believes that static electricity can participate in setting a person on fire.
… Therefore, the scientist advises against wearing synthetic clothing, which often sprinkles sparks. It is especially dangerous for people who are in ketosis.
HISTORICAL NOTE
Over 500 years in the line of fire
The first documented evidence dates back to 1470. It is described how the Italian knight Polonius Vorty, having drunk a fair amount of wine, began, in front of close relatives, to spew flame, then flared up and in a matter of minutes burned to ashes. Thanks to this and some other cases, it was believed that a person was burned by the devil's fire, Satan incinerated.
In 1763, a Frenchman, Jean Dupont, published a book with a collection of cases of human spontaneous combustion entitled De Incendiis Corporis Humani Spontaneis. And he told about Nicolas Millet, from whom the court dropped the charge of murdering his wife, when the court was convinced that she died as a result of spontaneous combustion.
From his wife Millet, a Parisian drinking heavily, only a pile of ash, a skull and legs remained. The straw mattress she was lying on remained intact.
In 1850, the German chemist Jastus von Leibig conducted the first scientific study of spontaneous human combustion. And he proved that the hypothesis prevailing at that time was not correct. Then there was no doubt that the reason for the phenomenon was alcohol, which alcoholics were "saturated" with. Like, from him they flare up.
The last documented evidence dates back to December 22, 2010 - a lonely old man, 76-year-old Michael Fogerty, was burned to death in Ireland. Experts, having suffered with the investigation for a whole year, eventually recorded that the cause of death of the pensioner was spontaneous combustion.