Editing Spontaneous human combustion (section)

== Overview ==
"Spontaneous human combustion" refers to the [[Death by burning|death from a fire]] originating without an apparent external source of ignition: a belief that the fire starts within the body of the victim. This idea and the term "spontaneous human combustion" were both first proposed in 1746 by Paul Rolli, a [[Fellow of the Royal Society]], in an article published in the ''[[Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society|Philosophical Transactions]]'' concerning the mysterious death of Countess [[Cornelia Zangheri Bandi]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Rolli |first=Paul |date=1746 |contribution=An Extract, by Mr. Paul Rolli, F.R.S. of an Italian Treatise, written by the Reverend Joseph Bianchini, a Prebend in the City of Verona; upon the Death of the Countess Cornelia Zangári & Bandi, of Ceséna |contribution-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=L9NeAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA447 |editor = Royal Society |editor-link = Royal Society |title=Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London Volume 21 |page=447 }}</ref> Writing in ''[[The BMJ|The British Medical Journal]]'' in 1938, [[coroner]] Gavin Thurston describes the phenomenon as having "apparently attracted the attention not only of the medical profession but of the non-medical professionals one hundred years ago" (referring to a fictional account published in 1834 in the [[Frederick Marryat]] cycle).<ref name="thurston-1938">{{cite journal | last = Thurston | first = Gavin | title = Spontaneous Human Combustion | journal = [[The BMJ|The British Medical Journal]] | date = 18 June 1938 | volume = 1 | issue = 4041 | page = 1340 | pmc=2086726 | doi=10.1136/bmj.1.4041.1340-a}}</ref> In his 1995 book ''Ablaze!'', Larry E. Arnold, a director of ParaScience International, wrote that there had been about 200 cited reports of spontaneous human combustion worldwide over a period of around 300 years.<ref name="arnold-1995">{{cite book | title = Ablaze!: The Mysterious Fires of Spontaneous Human Combustion | last = Arnold | first = Larry E. | date=December 1995 |publisher=[[Rowman & Littlefield|M. Evans & Co.]] |isbn=978-0-87131-789-6 }}</ref>

=== Characteristics ===
The topic received coverage in the ''British Medical Journal'' in 1938. An article by L. A. Parry cited an 1823-published book ''Medical Jurisprudence'',<ref>''A Treatise on Medical Jurisprudence'', by Dr John Ayrton Paris M.D. and [[John Samuel Martin Fonblanque]] Barrister at Law, 3 Vols, London, 1823</ref> which stated that commonalities among recorded cases of spontaneous human combustion included the following characteristics:<ref name="parry-1938">{{cite journal | last = Parry | first = L. A. | title = Spontaneous Combustion | journal = [[The BMJ|The British Medical Journal]] | date = 4 June 1938 | volume = 1 | issue = 4039 | page = 1237 | pmc=2086687 | doi=10.1136/bmj.1.4039.1237-b}}</ref>
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# the victims are chronic alcoholics;
# they are usually elderly females;
# the body has not burned spontaneously, but some lighted substance has come into contact with it;
# the hands and feet usually fall off;
# the fire has caused very little damage to combustible things in contact with the body;
# the combustion of the body has left a residue of greasy and fetid ashes, very offensive in odour.}}

[[Alcoholism]] is a common theme in early SHC literary references, in part because some [[Victorian era]] physicians and writers believed spontaneous human combustion was the result of alcoholism.<ref name="collins-2011">{{cite web | title = Spontaneous human combustion: examples from fiction | last = Collins | first = Nick | work = The Telegraph | url = https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/8784947/Spontaneous-human-combustion-examples-from-fiction.html | date = 23 September 2011 | access-date = 2013-10-10}}</ref>