Note 608 — HUMAN COMBUSTION.

This was the case of the priest Bertholi, described in one of the Journals of Florence for October 1776, by M. Battaglia, the surgeon, who attended him; we extract a short account of this extraordinary event from Foderé (tom. 8, p. 210) who to his own observations on the subject adds those of Fouquet, Marc, Koop, and others. Don Gio Maria Bertholi having spent the day in travelling about the country, arrived in the evening at the house of his brother-in-law; he immediately requested to be shewn to his destined apartment, where he had a handkerchief placed between his shirt and shoulders, and being left alone, betook himself to his devotions. A few minutes had scarcely elapsed when an extraordinary noise was heard from the apartment, and the cries of the unfortunate priest were particularly distinguished; the people of the house hastily entering the room, found him extended on the floor, and surrounded by a light flame which receded (â measure) as they approached, and finally vanished. On the following morning, the patient was examined by M. Battaglia who found the integuments of the right arm almost entirely detached and pendant from the flesh; from the shoulders to the thighs the integuments were equally injured; and on the right hand, the part most injured, mortification had already commenced, which notwithstanding immediate sacrification rapidly extended itself. The patient complained of burning thirst, and was horribly convulsed, he passed by stool putrid and bilious matter, and was exhausted by continual vomiting accompanied by fever and delirium. On the fourth day, after two hours of comatose insensibility, he expired; during the whole period of his suffering, it was impossible to trace any symptomatic affection. A short time previous to his decease, M. Battaglia observed, with astonishment, that putrefaction had made so much progress that the body already exhaled an insufferable odour, worms crawled from it on the bed, and the nails had become detached from the left hand.

The account given by the unhappy patient was, that he felt a stroke like the blow of a cudgel on the right hand, and at the same time he saw a lambent flame (bluette de feu) attach itself to his shirt, which was immediately reduced to ashes, his wristbands (poignets) at the same time being utterly untouched. The handkerchief, which as before mentioned, was placed between his shoulders and his shirt, was entire, and free from any trace of burning; his breeches were equally uninjured; but though not a hair of his head was burnt, his coif (calotte) was totally consumed. The weather on the night of the accident was calm, the air very pure; no empyreumatic or bituminous odour was perceived in the room, which was also free from smoke; there was no vestige of fire, except that the lamp, which had been full of oil, was found dry, and the wick reduced to cinder.

Maffei (says M. Battaglia) would have found in the case of the Priest Bertholi a confirmation of the opinion delivered by him (Journ. de med. tome 68, p. 436) that lightning is sometimes excited in us, and destroys us.

See the works of the Abbè Fontana, entitled Ricerche filos, sopra la ficic. animale.

M. Foderè observes, that the inflamed hydrogen, occasionally observed in church-yards, vanishes on the approach of the observer, like the flame which consumed P. Bertholi; and as he, in common with others, has remarked that this gas is developed in certain cases of disease, even in the living body, he seems inclined to join M. Marc in attributing this species of spontaneous combustion to the united action of hydrogen and electricity in the first instance, favored by the accumulation of animal oil and the impregnation of spirituous liquors.