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5 Med. Sci. & L. 37 (1965)
A Case of Spontaneous Combustion

handle is hein.journals/mdsclw5 and id is 49 raw text is: DENTAL FACTORS IN AGE DETERMINATION MAUSLIM, M., and SCHOUR, I. (1946) J. dent. Res. A 145. M1.ms, A. E. W. (1963) J. dent. Res. 42, 255. NALDtANAN, J., and SoGcNNs, R. F. (1960) (Contribu- tion to) Ageing, ed., N. W. Shock, pp. 367-382. American Academy of Science. Scnout, I., and HoppmAN, M. M. (1939) 1. dent. Rea. 18, 91, 161. ScHot, I., and MAssLER, M. (1941) J. Amer. dent. Ass. 28, 1153. STACK, M. V. (1960) J. forenric Set. Soc. 1, 49. ZAlNDE, H. A., and HuuZLLEi, B. (1958) J. dent. Res. 37, 1035. A CASE OF SPONTANEOUS COMBUSTION t D. J. GEE * BaLIEF in the occurrence of spontaneous com- bustion of the human body is of respectable antiquity. More recently opinion has swung away from the quasi-supernatural views of earlier years, to regard such cases as due to Unusual degrees of inflammability of the human body in certain circumstances, distin- guishing the condition with the name of Preternatural combustion. The occurrence of this phenomenon is appar- ently extremely infrequent. I have only been able to find one other instance reported in this country in the present century. Therefore the description of an example occurring in Leeds recently may be of some interest. The victim was a slim lady, 85 years old, who Was in good health apart from having suffered a slight stroke six months before her death. She lived with her son and daughter-in-law in a ground-floor flat. On the day of her death, in November 1963, her family had left the house by 9.30 a.m., while the old lady remained in bed. A fire was alight in the living room. Three hours later neighbours noticed smoke issuing from the kitchen window, and sum- moned the fire brigade, meanwhile extinguish- ing the fire and discovering the remains of a human body on the hearth of the living room. When I visited the house, about two hours later, the room was oppressively warm, and the ceiling felt hot. Some of the paintwork was blistered. The walls and furnishings were grimed with soot. Only slight structural damage to the room was present, and was con- fined to the neighbourhood of the fireplace, which contained a range comprising firebox and oven. Part of the wooden edge of the t Paper read to B.A.F.M. M.., B.S., M.C.PATH., D.M.J., lecturer in Forensic Medicine, University of Leeds. hearth was burnt, and a part of the floor, approximately one foot in diameter, immedi- ately in front of the hearth. The hearthrug was undamaged except at this point, but was greasy with many fragments of fat on its surface. A tea-towel, folded over the partially open oven door, at a point about one foot from the body, was scarcely singed, and a quantity of dry firewood inside the oven was undamaged. The position of the body is shown in fig. 13. As can be seen, it was grossly incinerated, apart from the right foot which lay beyond the damaged floor-boards. Both arms and the left leg had been almost completely destroyed. The body, when examined at the mortuary, was too extensively damaged to permit a defi- nite opinion regarding the cause of death. The coronary and internal carotid arteries showed atheromatous disease. No soot particles were present in the trachea. Blood from the right foot contained no carboxyhaemoglobin, and histological examination of the burn margin did not show any vital reaction. There was no evidence of wounding. The most probable course of events seemed to be some form of cardiac or cerebro-vascular catastrophe, accom- panied by a fall into the fire, followed very rapidly by death. The disproportion between the damage to the body, and to surrounding objects in the room appeared to exclude the possibility that some inflammable substances had been poured onto the body and ignited, before or after death. The appearances sug- gested that the body was ignited at the head by the fire, of which a few cinders remained, and had been sufficiently inflammable to burn to this degree without any other source of heat, like a candle; the draught from the chimney pre- vented spread of flames to other parts of the room.

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