Early `reliable’ report
Probably the earliest reliable report of spontaneous human combustion was reported in Verona, Italy, in the 18th. century.
According to a statement by Bianchini, a prebendary (clergyman) of Verona, dated 4 April 1731, the 62-year-old Countess Cornelia Bandi had been put to bed after supper, and fell asleep after several hours’ conversation with her maid.
In the morning the maid returned to wake her and found a grisly scene. The `Gentlemen’s Magazine’ reported: ‘The floor of the chamber was thick-smear’d with a gluish moisture, not easily got off . . . and from the lower part of the window trickl’d down a greasy, loathsome, yellowish liquor with an unusual stink.’
Specks of soot hung in the air and covered all the surfaces in the room, and the smell had penetrated adjoining rooms. The bed was undamaged, the sheets turned back, indicating the Countess had got out of bed.
Four feet [1 .3 metres] from the bed was a heap of ashes, two legs untouch’d, stockings on, ‘between which lay the head, the brains, half of the back-part of the skull and the whole chin burn’d to ashes, among which were found three fingers blacken’d.
All the rest was ashes which had this quality - that they left in the hand a greasy and stinking moisture.
In photo: an unidentified spontaneous human combustion victim
A newspaper stand during the American civil war or War Between the States
Write a Comment