_lentils_, &c. are of this description. Some years ago a great fire broke out in the village of _Nauslitz_, which is said to have been occasioned by the application of _roasted_ bran to the necks of some cattle in a wooden cow-house; in consequence of which, _M. Rude_ an apothecary at _Bautzen_, instituted some experiments, by which he found that if rye-bran, roasted until it acquires the colour of coffee, be wrapped up in a linen cloth, it will in a short time take fire. _Montet_ relates[605] that animal substances may also, under certain circumstances of decomposition, kindle into flame; and he tells us that he had himself witnessed the spontaneous accension of a dunghill. We do not believe that the phosphoric appearances that so frequently accompany the process of putrefaction, especially that of fish, are ever connected with actual combustion. Woollen stuffs are said to have taken fire spontaneously; it is related for instance that the article manufactured at Cevennes, and which bears the name of “_Emperor’s Stuff_,” has thus kindled of itself, and burnt to coal; we are, however, very doubtful whether such a material is liable to this process, unless it be impregnated with oily matter; and this doubt will receive considerable strength from the facts which we shall hereafter enumerate. III. CHEMICAL ACTION. This proves a very frequent cause of _spontaneous combustion_; and there is perhaps no substance that has so frequently performed the part of an incendiary as _fixed oil_, especially when of a drying nature, which with its various accomplices from the animal, vegetable, and mineral kingdoms, has in darkness and secresy consigned ships, houses, and manufactories to the flames. The following interesting occurrence is related in the _Edinburgh Philosophical Journal_: About twenty-five pieces of cloth, each of which contained nearly thirty ells, were deposited upon wooden planks in a cellar at Lyons, on the eighth of July, 1815, in order to conceal them from the armies which then over-ran France; _in the manufacture of the cloth 25lbs of oil were used for a quintal of wool, and the cloth was quite greasy_, each piece weighing from 80lbs to 90lbs; the cellar had an opening to the north, which was carefully shut up with dung, and the door was concealed by bundles of vine-props, which freely admitted the air; on the morning of the 4th of August an intolerable stench was perceived, and the person who entered the cellar was surrounded by a thick smoke, which he could not support; a short time afterwards he re-entered with precaution, holding a stable lanthorn in his hand, and he was astonished to perceive a shapeless glutinous mass, apparently in a state of putrefaction; he then removed the dung from the openings, and as soon as a circulation of air was established, the cloth instantly took fire. In another corner of the cellar lay a heap of stuffs which had been _ungreased_ and prepared for the fuller, _but they had suffered no change_.