For quite a long time, there have been disputes among specialists and amateurs in medicine: can a person spontaneously ignite or even burn to ashes without the influence of an external source of heat? Be that as it may, over the past 300 years, more than 200 such cases have already been recorded.
This phenomenon is called human spontaneous combustion, or, in abbreviated form, midrange. Its manifestation is considered to be when a person dies from the heat that flares up inside his body. All the available records follow the same principle.
The lone victim is literally devoured alive by the flames, and this usually happens in the victim's own home. In this case, limbs, for example, hands, feet, or even shins, often remain untouched by the fire. The torso and head, in turn, are charred beyond recognition; in rare cases, the internal organs are also not affected.
A distinctive feature of the midrange is that there are no signs of fire in the victim's room, with the exception of greasy soot on the furniture and walls. Often the characteristic sweetish smell of smoke remains in the air, indicating an incident.
Mentions of spontaneous human combustion in historical documents
The history of mentioning the midrange originates in medieval literature, however, some researchers believe that the first mentions of this phenomenon are found in the Bible.
The Danish physician Thomas Bartholin (1616-1680) in 1641 described the circumstances of the death of Polonius Vorstius in his Historiarum Anatomicarum Rariorum, where he collected many strange and inexplicable medical mysteries.
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In 1470, the Italian knight Vorstius drank some strong wine while at his home in Milan, surrounded by his family. According to their testimony, he suddenly began to spew fire, then the flame engulfed him completely. This entry is the first recorded case of human spontaneous combustion in history.
Image of a self-igniting person
A little later, in 1673, the French author Jonas Dupont published a book entitled "De Incendiis Corporis Humani Spontaneis", in which he collected famous cases and research on spontaneous combustion.
One notable incident occurred in 1725 when a Parisian innkeeper was awakened by the smell of smoke and discovered that his wife, Nicole Millet, had turned to dust, with the straw mattress on which she slept almost unharmed by the fire, like other wooden objects. located in the immediate vicinity of the deceased. A charred skull, fragments of a spine and a lower leg - that's all that remains of Madame Millet, a drunken alcoholic.
Her husband was charged with murder and at first the court had no reason to doubt. However, upon a second examination, his lawyer was able to prove the version of "spontaneous human combustion", not least thanks to the testimony of Dr. Claude-Nicolas Le Cat, a surgeon. Dr. Le Cath was at the hotel when the smell of the house woke the guests and was present when Nicole's remains were found. As a result, the cause of death was recorded as "Divine Intervention"
In the 19th century, the topic of human spontaneous combustion was largely popularized thanks to Charles Dickens, the famous English writer, who chose this method to kill one of the negative characters in his novel Bleak House. When critics tried to reproach him for writing about a phenomenon that simply could not take place in reality, Dickens pointed to the research being carried out, which at that time counted more than 30 such cases.
Illustration for the novel "Bleak House" by Charles Dickens, depicting a scene of spontaneous combustion of a person
Common Traits of Spontaneous Combustion Victims Collected in 1938
The subject of MF was further developed in 1938 in the British Medical Journal, when an article by L. A. Perry cited data from the book "Medical Jurisprudence" published in 1823. Thanks to this information, a list of features common to all cases of spontaneous combustion was formulated:
chronic alcoholism of the victims; most of the victims were elderly women; despite the fact that the body caught fire spontaneously, this was necessarily preceded by contact with a flammable liquid; hands and feet were almost always unaffected by combustion; the fire practically did not hit the surrounding objects, even those in contact with the body; After burning, the body was left with a greasy sticky ash and a characteristic pungent smell. In early mentions of midrange, it is clear that alcoholism is credited with the most significant role in what happened, in part because some doctors and writers of the Victorian era believed that it was he who caused human spontaneous combustion.
The Human Candle Effect: A Scientific Explanation of Midrange
There are several theories about what can cause spontaneous combustion in a person, in addition to the aforementioned alcoholism. These include factors such as combustible human fat, accumulation of acetone or methane, static electricity, exposure to bacteria or stress, and even divine intervention.
The phenomenon of midrange is explained to the greatest extent by the theory of the "human candle". The candle consists of a wick surrounded by wax. The fire ignites the wick and the wax keeps it burning. According to this theory, if we compare the human body with a candle, then clothes and hair covered with sebum play the role of a wick. The role of wax is played by the victim's subcutaneous fat.
The cigarette can set the victim's clothing on fire, which charred the top layer of the skin and melted subcutaneous fat leaks out, soaking the "wick" and keeping it burning. Thus, by analogy with a candle, combustion will continue until the fuel source runs out. Proponents of this theory consider this to be an explanation of the fact that despite the complete combustion of the body, the environment is barely touched by the flame.
The Three Stages of the Human Candle Theory
Controversial points regarding the issue of spontaneous human combustion
There are certain facts about the midrange phenomenon that must be taken into account: known cases have always occurred indoors, only with lonely people and near a heat source. For example, not a single such incident has yet been recorded on a busy street in broad daylight. Another point is that only people suffer from spontaneous combustion, there is not a single report on such incidents with other representatives of the animal world.
Also, the “human candle” theory does not explain why people remained motionless throughout the entire burning episode, and does not even provide a sufficient explanation for the fact that the surrounding objects are unharmed, without signs of exposure to heat or fire.
Moreover, supporters of the MF phenomenon point to the fact that the human body must reach a temperature of about 1650 degrees Celsius to completely turn into ash, and it was in this form that most of the victims were found. For comparison, cremation takes place at a temperature of about 980 degrees.
Modern cases of the phenomenon of spontaneous combustion
Cases of midrange are not counted just by old tales or hard-to-verify stories from ancient books. A much more recent case occurred in Ireland in 2010.
The charred body of an elderly man was found in a closed room near the fireplace. Despite the dire damage, there were no signs of fire on the walls or ceiling, not even directly above the body, or anywhere else in the room. The Irish coroner later confirmed that spontaneous combustion was the cause of 76-year-old Michael Facherty's death.
Many people believe that something unique is hidden in the human body that distinguishes us from other earthly inhabitants, some aspects that are still unknown to us. One of these aspects may be the cause of human spontaneous combustion, which still remains an unsolved mystery.
Kirill Mechanichev