The idea that human beings can, quite apart from any outside stimulus, be consumed from an internal heat source so intense as to consume even the bones, but leave the immediate environment relatively unburned, has been a subject of controversy since the nineteenth century. Incidents had been reported since the fifteenth century and became the subject of both public and medical controversy in the 1850s following the use of spontaneous combustion as a means of disposing of a character by popular writer Charles Dickens in his novel Bleak House. During the twentieth century, with the continued if sporadic reports of burned bodies, the controversy has been pressed by writers on fortean anomalistic phenomena. In a 1992 book on the subject, Jenny Randles and Peter Hough tracked some 85 cases that had occurred since 1850.
Though some incidents appear to be cases of spontaneous combustion in the ancient literature, the modern string of cases begins with the death of the Italian knight Polonus in 1470. A century and a half later, John Hillard tried to bring the issue before the public in his pamphlet Fire from Heaven (1613). The death of Nicole Millet, the wife of an innkeeper in Rheims, France, on February 20, 1725, led to the first court inquiry and ruling. In the middle of the night, Jean Millet awoke smelling fire. He awakened the inn's guests and together they found Nicole's body in the kitchen. All except her skull, a few vertebrae, and her lower extremities had been consumed. Wooden objects close by were untouched. Millet was tried and found guilty of murder, but on appeal the conviction was reversed based on the testimony of a physician who had been staying at the inn that night who concluded that Mme. Millet's death was due to a "visitation of God," that is, an unknown cause. The fact that Mme. Millet had consumed a significant amount of alcohol was seen as possibly causing the fire to start and contributing to its disastrous results. Ever since, alcohol consumption has been associated with the phenomenon.
The first American case of spontaneous combustion was that of Hannah Bradshaw in New York City in 1770; however, the most heralded case has been that of Mary Reeser, a widow residing in St. Petersburg, Florida. Her body was discovered on the morning of July 2, 1951, after her landlady's hand found the doorknob too hot to grasp. She and two men called to assist an entry found Reeser's body, the chair she had been sitting in, and a side table burned, along with a six-foot circle of carpet. The remainder of the room, including a pile of newspapers just outside the circle, remained unaffected. The Reeser case illustrated the essential problem raised by human combustion cases. As those in charge of crematoriums are quite aware, it takes a very high temperature applied over a period of time to consume the human body, especially the bones. Under normal conditions, such a concentration of heat would cause considerable damage in the immediate surrounding area.
In the last two centuries a variety of explanations for spontaneous human combustion have been offered, ranging from the scientific to the paranormal. Some have tied it to leys, magnetic irregularities in the Earth, and UFOs. Writing in 1995, Larry Arnold, currently the leading proponent of a paranormal explanation for the phenomenon, was not the first to suggest that the image on the Turin Shroud might have been caused by spontaneous human combustion.
Vincent Gaddis, known for his broad study of anomalous phenomena, suggested a tie to depression and even suicide. Possibly the same forces which, when directed outwardly, produce suicide, might when projected inwardly lead to the burning of the body.
Edinburgh University scientist Dougal Drysdale suggested what he termed a candle-wick theory, noting that the body, which contains a considerable amount of fat, could burn like a candle with great local intensity. This theory is favored by the major spokespersons of the skeptical community, especially Joe Nickell and John F. Fischer, as a part of their crusade to remove any paranormal explanations from anomalous phenomena. While this theory accounts for the consumption of body fats and the body's high water content, its flaw remains in the extremely high temperatures needed even to begin to consume bone material.
Spontaneous human combustion remains a rare phenomenon, and even among those most prone to adopt occult interpretations, few have followed that lead. Several forteans have suggested that like the Bermuda Triangle, it may be a constructed problem that brings together cases that are only superficially related. Most have accepted the more telling incidents as unexplained, but view it as a natural mystery whose solving has been delayed due to the paucity of cases, the high level of diversity among cases studied, and the limitations imposed on experimenting on human subjects.
Sources:
Arnold, Larry E. Ablaze! The Mysterious Fires of Spontaneous Human Combustion. New York: M. Evans and Co., 1995.
Harrison, Michael. Fire from Heaven: A Study of Spontaneous Combustion in Human Beings. London: Sidgwick and Jackson, 1976.
Nickell, Joe, and John F. Fischer. Mysterious Realms. Amherst N.Y.: Prometheus Books, 1992.
——. Secrets of the Supernatural. Buffalo, N.Y.: Prometheus Books, 1988.
Randles, Jenn, and Peter A. Hough. Spontaneous Human Combustion. London: Robert Hale, 1992.
Wilson, Damon. Spontaneous Combustion: Amazing True Stories of Mysterious Fires. Sydney: The Book Co., 1997.
