Morton saw a
flame emanate from beneath the skin of a hog at the instant of
making an incision through it. Ruysch, the famous Dutch
physician, remarks that he introduced a hollow bougie into a
woman's stomach he had just opened, and he observed a vapor
issuing from the mouth of the tube, and this lit on contact with
the atmosphere. This is probably an exaggeration of the
properties of the hydrogen sulphid found in the stomach. There is
an account of a man of forty-three, a gross feeder, who was
particularly fond of fats and a victim of psoriasis palmaria, who
on going to bed one night, after extinguishing the light in the
room, was surprised to find himself enveloped in a phosphorescent
halo; this continued for several days and recurred after further
indiscretions in diet. It is well known that there are insects
and other creatures of the lower animal kingdom which possess the
peculiar quality of phosphorescence.
There are numerous cases of spontaneous combustion of the human
body reported by the older writers. Bartholinus mentions an
instance after the person had drunk too much wine. Fouquet
mentions a person ignited by lightning. Schrader speaks of a
person from whose mouth and fauces after a debauch issued fire.
Pages:
808
809
810
811
812
813
814
815
816
817
818
819
820
821
822
823
824
825
826
827
828
829
830
831
832