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LETTERS ON SPONTANEOUS COMBUSTION . Sufficient time has elapsed , since the publication of my two letters on the subject of Spontaneous Combustion , to have allowed correspondents to make the requisite researches for their replies , and , as it is not likely any more communications will now be forwarded , I lay before the reader all that has been received . In a private note , Charles Dickens , while expressing the utmost deference to the authority of Liebier and Owen , maintains his original position ,
because he thinks , it justified by the evidence . " If I take anything on evidence , I must take that , " he says . And he enumerates the sources whence that evidence is drawn . The point of interest in his note , is an emphatic protest against my too hasty assumption , that , in adopting the notion of Spontaneous Combustion , he had not taken the trouble of investigating the subject ; he assures me , on the contrary , that he " looked into a number of books , with great care , expressly to learn what the truth was . I examined the subject as a judge might have done , and without laying down any law upon the case . "
I have already touched on this point of evidence , and need not recur to it . Space is limited , and correspondents claim it . Here is the first letter . The writer announces a disbelief in the phenomenon , while advocating , on what he , fancies scientific grounds , the possibility of the phenomenon pronounced by me impossible : — Dear Lewes , —I read in the Leader your letters to the author of Bleak House , on the stibject of Spontaneous Combustion ; but I don't think you have got quite to the bottom of this ^ question . It is true that a 10 stone man contains upwards of 100 lbs . of water ; and that to evaporate this water would take as much heat as is produced by 10 or 12 lbs . of good coal economically burned under a boiler . But this same water , if decomposed , would separate into the best combustible , and the best supporter of combustion , known .
Again , if a part of this water were decomposed , the heat developed by its recomposition ( by the burning of its hydrogen in its oxygen ) would suffice to evaporate more or less of the water remaining undecomposed . The vital force , unknown and inscrutable as it is , yet presents several strong anologies with the galvanic force that serves to decompose water . Thus , a man convulsed in epilepsy strikingly resembles a man convulsed by galvanism . The vapour of water does not always impede combustion : on the contrary , it is commonly employed to help it . When the ashes under a boiler furnace are kept wet , the vapour which rises and passes through the fire helps combustion so much as to save ten or twelve per cent , of the fuel which must else be consumed . This fact is all the more curious , that the same water added beforehand to the fuel greatly impedes combustion . Thus , every one knows that fresh wood ( which contains about twenty percent , of water ) burns less freely and produces less heat than the same fuel when dried .
If , then , water withdrawn , and water supplied , may promote combustion according to the varying circumstances of the case , it is conceivable ( though not proved ) that part of the water in the body may bo favourable to that very combustion which part of the water tends to prevent . Suppose , now , a concurrence of several extraordinary circumstances . Suppose first tho normal quantity of water in the body to have been greatly diminished , relatively to the Nerve-power—the Vital Force—the inscrutable X , which we only know by its results . Suppose this Force itself , on the other hand , to be enormously
augmented , as in epilepsy , mania , &c—suppose it to operate suddenly or rapidly ns a decomposing force upon u large proportion of the water;—suppo . se an equally rapid recomposition or burning of tin ; fuel and the oxygen thus provided;—suppose thin suddenly and abnormally quickened eremacausis to be aided by the oxydation of Hit , alcohol , and carbon , existing in exceptional superabundance in the body;—. suppose that of the undeeomposed water a part is so presented to the burning fuel sis to aid its combustion—and thus , 1 think , it ceases to be inconceivable that the reirminder of the water—the part adverse to combustion—may fail to overcome by ifca cooling power tho rapidly developed heat .
Any such combination ofcircuinHfcanc . es is excessively improbable , no doubt . Uufc so also tho alleged eases of spontaneous combustion are excessively rare . 1 don't affirm spontaneous combustion to be probable ; and , for my own part , 1 have never Keen any account of such a case- suflieiently circumstantial nnd well authenticated to carry conviction to my own mind . I only nay , that it . strikes mo as going too far to deny , < l priori , the possibility of such an occurrence . The observed Conner Ubility of the imponderable forces might also , 1 think , be brought into the lints against your direct and absolute denial of the bare possibility of . spontaneous combustion . What i . s there more astonishing than to see a platinum wire first glowing red hot , then running in drops like sealing wax , under the influence of a force developed by ii relatively cold solution of acid acting on some metal platen ?
What is there more astonishing than to seo the electric eel Hfcriko dead the fishes which approach it—nnd that by an organ which , on dissection , oilers none of the known conditions of a powerful galvanic battery ? The water in a mini ' s body is to u great extent diffused in films of almost molecular delicacy , amidst membranes permeated by tho ramifying filaments of n norvous network fed constantly with streams of force , strikingly analogous with tho marvellous foreo of the galvanic battery and the electric eel . We cannot possibly aflirin that a sudden gush or an accelerated How of the unknown gulvaniclikc ! nerve force may not , under abnormal circumstances , be produced , and develop nniiKiial heat , cither directly , or by its electric action , on the finely divided water exposed to its iniluence .
Such a last , intense , abnormal efl ' orl , of life , concentrated because expiring , or perhaps expiring because concentrated , might , ifc seem * to me , take the form of a jiro-fit as w « ll as of u ( it . of convulsion ( epilepsy ) , or of Ktiituo-stillne , HH ( outiilopsy ) ,
or of those various other modes of nerve-power aberration , only less marvellous than spontaneous combustion because more familiar . While , therefore , I myself disbelieve in spontaneous combustion as an alleged fact not yet established by sufficient proof , I also consider the disproof insufficient to expunge such a phenomon from the category of possible events . And , allowing the latitude which the novelist may fairly claim in turning even legendary matter to account for our amusement , I should hardly be inclined to join in a very severe criticism on the author of Bleak Souse for bringing a hero or bo , when done with , to this fiery end . Believe me , dear Lei » es , faithfully yours , Ignis .
Ignis reasons more carelessly than philosophy can allow . I do not remember a case where more virtue was contained in an if . To say that water , if decomposed , would separate into the best combustible and the best supporter of combustion , is to begin the argument with one of those tremendous assumptions , which vitiate all conclusion , by implying that the person using it is reasoning beside the facts . If decomposed I How , when , where , is the water to be decomposed ? What known conditions are there of the body which permit such an if ? what facts of decomposition countenance it ? Not one . Because electricity will , under certain conditions , and with certain intensities , decompose water , Ignis imagines that the '' vital force" may be made to do so , because the " vital force " presents " several analogies with the galvanic force . " But it
1 st . If the vital force presents several analogies with galvanic force , also presents several striking differences ; so much so , that no good physiologist believes in their identity . All attempts at proving the existence of an electric current , along a nerve actually engaged in carrying motor influence , have failed . If you tie a ligature round a nervous trunk , you destroy the conducting power of the nerves , but you do not impair its power of conducting electricity ; or—a still more striking example—if a small piece of a nervous trunk be cut out , and replaced by an electric conductor , electricity will pass along the nerve , but the nerve force will rcotf . 2 nd . Supposing the brain to be a galvanic battery , and nothing else , it will not help the argument ; the conditions for decomposing water do not exist in the body . Among many arguments , take this : water is decomposed by electricity , when it is interposed between two currents—ifc makes a break , and is decomposed . In the body , the electricity , if electricity it be , is always in closed currents .
3 rd . Before we are entitled to speak of nerve force decomposing water , we must have some evidence that it does so ; we must know of certain facts which warrant the assumption . JSTone are known . Until Ignis can show an instance of water in the body being decomposed , leaving both elements free , as is the case when decomposed by electricity , he is not entitled to " suppose" anything of the kind . Ignis *; ites the fact of water being thrown on coals , under a boiler , thereby saving the fuel ; but he misapprehends the real process . Vapour of water can no more assist combustion , than Mater itself ! and I am surprised to find any one supposing that it could . There arc several reasons
for damping coals ; but it has been proved , over and over again , that the steam does not increase the heat of burning fuel ; it merely alters the place of highest temperature in the furnace , always raising it higher in the fire . This is in conseq \ ience of tho carbonic oxide and hydrogen being produced in the lower part of the fire , which are burned again in the upper part . There is no gain of heat , but the heat is better distributed . The water on coals may also produce a draft , by the steam , and diminish the quantity of smoke . Anything , in short , but become itself more combustible than water . Then , as to what Ignis says about the electric organ of the torpedo , let him examine one , and he will find ho is in error . The organ is constructed like a galvanic pile .
So much for the facts and suppositions of Ignis . Mr . Bedford , who addresses the second letter , heaps fact upon fact , illustration upon illustration , but I cannot clearly see his drift , though I have read his letter many times . Here it is : —
Mr dkaw Lewes , — You certainly have put a considerable damper upon spontaneous combustion ; but I think I can see a spark left yet that witli a little / aiming ' will at any rate keep the subject warm . At starting ' , however , I must beg you to understand that 1 am not u believer in spontaneous combustion of the living body , and altogether repudiate Professor Apjohn ' s theory ; still more am I suspicious of the best authenticated cases , having had a pretty good schooling hh to what may bo authenticated" in many experiments about mesmerism . 1 can't agree with Dickons that the subject i . s already so well understood as to require no elucidation , any more than I can with you that spontaneous combustion is a physical impossibility . The question involves some very interesting matters , upon which , and from neutral ground , 1 wish to offer a few words ruther as suggestions than assertions , and far be it from me to take up the cudgels for one so nblt ; us Dickens . 1 am only a volunteer on the side of Nature .
You will not misunderstand mo if I say that in asserting the impossibility of this phenomenon you seem to me to have yielded up your usual breadth of treatment to the authorities of science — piled Owen on ( Jrahnui against the thought
even . J . As to your position that a phenomenon which is contrary to science , and has never occurred , is impossible . What is possible and impossible can only be predicated in the mathematics . We can say , by experience , such and such a thing will occur again ; but we are hardly justified in saying anything is impossible because it ¦ coins so " in our philosophy , " and has never been known to havo occurred . SuppoHO a sot of eternal spirits , " souls" as we say , conversing , they might say or think with . neat apparent truth , « Oh ; it is impossible that < 1 iihL of the earth feel and have will
could ever be like us , could ever bit made to think and u . " Ho it might bo said of your impossible position that a lamp-post , winch is an iron one , I prcmn . H ) , is so far similar to an elm as a plum-pudding is to a bunch of grapes ; it is all iron instead of being chiefly wood wilh . litt . lt ) iron as the elm . The list of mineral substances ( amongst them iron ) contained and funning part of the living annuals and plants is a surprising one . Moreover , what w <> are content to call "the elementary bodies" are , us you will be the first , to admit ,, ¦ possiUi / only modifications * of tho same mutter ; and you will remember that many substances havo two , or even three , different states , cneli possessing different properties , yet conuistin ^ , according to proNOiit chemical analysis , of tho tmino elements , and be / ing nominall y t he *
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Critics are not the legislators , but the judges and police of literature . They do nob make laws—they interpret and try to enforce them . — Edinburgh Review .
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March 26 , 1853 . ] THE LEADER . 303
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), March 26, 1853, page 303, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1979/page/15/
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