spontaneous human combustion
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
English[edit]
Noun[edit]
spontaneous human combustion (uncountable)
- The supposed spontaneous combustion of human beings without an apparent external source of ignition.
- 1829, A London Encyclopaedia, Or Universal Dictionary of Science, Art, Literature, and Practical Mecahnics, volume VI, London: Thomas Tegg, page 243, column 1:
- Winter is the season in which spontaneous human combustion most frequently occurs; because cold air, which is a bad conductor of electricity, favors the ideo-electric state of th animal body.
- 1953, George Hunt Williamson, Other Tongues - Other Flesh, London: Neville Spearman, page 293:
- Remember the strange case of "spontaneous human combustion", in St. Petersburg, Florida in 1951? Mrs. Mary H. Reeser, 67, was discovered in her apartment where she was almost completely destroyed by fire. Yet, the apartment itself wasn’t damaged and newspapers near the chair in which she was cremated weren’t even scorched! Scientists said it would take unbelievable temperatures to destroy her body so completely, and the fact that nothing else was damaged in the room didn’t make sense at all.