DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.70303#0398
s6s PERSONS DESTROYED DY INTERNAL ElRlh
Near these remains stood a table untouched, and under
the treble a small wooden stove., the grating of which
having been long burned, afforded an aperture through
which probably, the fire which occasioned the melan-
choly accident was communicated: one chair which
stood too near the flames had the seat and- fore-feet
burned. In other respects there was no appearance of
fire, either in the chimney or the apartment; so that,
excepting the fore-part of the chair, it appears to me
that no other combustible matter contributed to this
speedy incineration which was effected in the space of
seven or eight hours.
The second instance took place at Caen, and ishhus
related by Merille, a surgeon of that city. Being re-
quested on the 3d of June, 1782, by the king’s officers to
draw up a report of the state in which I found Made-
moiselle Thuars, who is said to have been burned, I
made the following observations.—The body lay with the
crown of the head resting against one of the andirons,
at the distance of eighteen inches from the fire ; the re-
mainder of the body was placed obliquely before the
chimney, the whole being nothing but a mass of ashes.
Even the most solid bones had lost their form and con-
sistence ; none of them could be distinguished, except-
ing the coronal, the two parietal bones, the two lumbar
vertebrae, a portion of the tibia, and a part of the om-
opiate: and these were so calcined that they became
dust by the least pressure. The right foot was found en-
tire, and scorched at its upper junction; the left was
more burned. The day was cold, but there was nothing
in the grate excepting two or three bits of wrood about an
inch in diameter, burnt in the middle. None of the
furniture in the apartment was damaged. The chair in
which Mademoiselle Thuars had been sitting was found
at the distance of a foot from her, and absolutely un-
touched
Near these remains stood a table untouched, and under
the treble a small wooden stove., the grating of which
having been long burned, afforded an aperture through
which probably, the fire which occasioned the melan-
choly accident was communicated: one chair which
stood too near the flames had the seat and- fore-feet
burned. In other respects there was no appearance of
fire, either in the chimney or the apartment; so that,
excepting the fore-part of the chair, it appears to me
that no other combustible matter contributed to this
speedy incineration which was effected in the space of
seven or eight hours.
The second instance took place at Caen, and ishhus
related by Merille, a surgeon of that city. Being re-
quested on the 3d of June, 1782, by the king’s officers to
draw up a report of the state in which I found Made-
moiselle Thuars, who is said to have been burned, I
made the following observations.—The body lay with the
crown of the head resting against one of the andirons,
at the distance of eighteen inches from the fire ; the re-
mainder of the body was placed obliquely before the
chimney, the whole being nothing but a mass of ashes.
Even the most solid bones had lost their form and con-
sistence ; none of them could be distinguished, except-
ing the coronal, the two parietal bones, the two lumbar
vertebrae, a portion of the tibia, and a part of the om-
opiate: and these were so calcined that they became
dust by the least pressure. The right foot was found en-
tire, and scorched at its upper junction; the left was
more burned. The day was cold, but there was nothing
in the grate excepting two or three bits of wrood about an
inch in diameter, burnt in the middle. None of the
furniture in the apartment was damaged. The chair in
which Mademoiselle Thuars had been sitting was found
at the distance of a foot from her, and absolutely un-
touched