[Sysop's note:  This is another in a string of Fortean files left by a
long-ago caller to this BBS, this time concerning cases of spontaneous
human combustion.  Forteans aim to publicise cases of anomalous events
not in accord with scientific orthodoxy.  If they were more careful and
selective in so doing, they would be doing the cause of science a big
favour.

It is a little-known fact that there's enough fat in the human body that
overweight individuals, at least, can burn to a greasy cinder if set
afire.  It's also a fact that in every properly investigated case of
this happening, the individual turns out to have had severely hindered
mobility (e.g., seriously ill, or intoxicated) -- and thus poorly able
to "put himself out" -- and there was a source of open flame nearby.
Many were smokers who seem to have let ashes fall on themselves, then
struggled to get to water (or some means of putting out the fire) and
failed.  Contrary to the impression these accounts tend to leave, the
burning process takes many hours.  I imagine it to be serverely
gruesome.

Of course, some of the accounts below do not purport to be of that type,
but rather concern sudden fires, and, unfortunately, not much
information is given to make possible further inquiry into the facts.

                                  -- Rick Moen, The Skeptic's Board]


    A mysterious, though not spontaneous, case of human combustion was 
reported by Dr. De Brus in the Edinburgh Meical and Surgical Jounal dated 
March 1829. The subject's hands burst into flames when he attempted to help 
his brother, whose clothes were on fire. The blue flames continued for several 
hours over the hands, and only constant immersion in water finall extinguished 
them.
    --Theodorick R. and John Beck, Elements of Medical Jurisprudence, 10th ed, 
Vol 2, pp98-99

    An old soldier climbed up into a hayloft in Colchester, England, on 
Sunday, Feb. 19, 1888. He was found completely consumed by fire, while the 
highly flammable dry hay around him, both loose and in bundles, was not even 
scorched.
   --The British Medical Journal, April 21, 1888, pp.841-42

   Some odd things happened in Binbrook, Lincolnshire, England around the end 
of 1904. In December the Reverend AC Custance said that objects were being 
hurled about and sometimes catching fire at the rectory. A month later a 
Binbrook farmer saw the servant girl busy sweeping, oblivious to the flames 
leaping from the back of her dress. He shouted to her and rushed to smother 
the flames, but she had been badly burned.
   --Charles Fort, The Complete Books of Charles Fort, pp.663-65

   Two constables found the burned corpse of a woman in the village of Manner, 
near Dinapore, India, in 1907. The two men carried the corpse, still 
smolderingh inside UNSCORCHED clothes, to the district magistrate's office. 
The Indian press said that the officers had seen no signs of fire in the room 
where the body was.
   --Charles Fort, The Complete Books of Charles Fort, p.930

   The burned body of Allen Small, age 52, was found in his home at Deer Isle, 
Maine, on Jan.13, 1943. The carpet beneath the body was scorched, but there 
was no other sign of fire anywhere in the house. In the kitchen the stove lids 
were all in place, and Small's unlit pipe was resting on a shelf.
   --Vincent Gaddis, Mysterious Fires and LIghts, P.227

   The body of Waymon Wood of Greenville, South Carolina, was found "crisp 
black" in the front seat of his closed car on March 1, 1953. The car was 
parked on the side of Bypass Route 291. Although little remained of Wood, the 
car, which contained a half tank of gas, was uneffected except for the 
windshield, which had bubbled and sagged inward from the intense heat.
   --Vincent Gaddis, Mysterious Fires and Lights, P.112
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