his shoulders, between his shirt and his skin, was perfectly entire, without the least appearance of burning, his drawers were untouched, but his night-cap was destroyed, though a single hair of his head was not hurt. That this flame under the form of elementary fire, burnt the skin, reduced the shirt to ashes, and entirely consumed the night-cap, without in the least touching the hair, is a fact which I affirm to be true: besides, every symptom that appeared on the body of the deceased, announced severe burning. The night was calm, and the circumambient air very pure: no bituminous smell could be perceived in the chamber, nor was there the least trace of fire or of smoke. A lamp, however, which had been full of oil, was found dry, and the wick almost in ashes. We cannot reasonably suppose this fatal accident to have been occasioned by any external cause; and I have no doubt that if Maffei were still alive he would take advantage of it to support an opinion which he entertained, that lightning is sometimes kindled in the human body and destroys it.” Another account, to the same purpose, is given in Mr. Battaglia’s paper. “On the 21st of April, 1781, the first battalion of the brigade of Savoy set out from Tortona, in order to go to Arti, when the weather was excessively hot. On the 22d, having made rather a forced march, the soldiers suffered a great deal from the ardour of the sun, so that, at the village of Serre, where they halted, one of them, named Bocquet, a man of twenty-five years of age, whose skin being very hard and thick had not perspired, sent forth a loud cry, which seemed to announce some extraordinary commotion, and instantly fell down. Mr. Bianet, surgeon major to the regiment, found the patient in convulsions. When he was carried to the hospital the upper part of his body, to the thighs, appeared to be withered and black, and in a gangrenous state. Mr. Bianet employed scarifications, but without effect; it was impossible to make him swallow any thing; and it was found necessary to abandon him to his dismal fate. His body soon exhaled a putrid smell, and he died at the end of five hours. That his disorder might not be communicated to others, he was interred together with his clothes. Upon inquiry, after his death, it was found that this man was addicted to the constant use of spiritous liquors, and that he had even drank of them to excess upon the march.”