twelve miles from this town.

The Death of "Old Krook" in Dickens's "Bleak House" or of the victim in
one of Marryat's most thrilling tales was not more gruesome than this
actual fact. It is without doubt a case of spontaneous human combustion,
such as is recorded beyond dispute in medical and medico-legal
text-books of the past two centuries. Scientists in this city consulted
for the Record agree that, while rare, spontaneous human combustion is
an established fact and that everything in this curious case goes to
show that another has been added to the already well-authenticated
list of cases recorded in America and Europe. The family refuse to be
interviewed, which seems to indicate that the rumours in medical circles
in Saranac have a solid basis of fact.

Then followed a circumstantial account of the life of Langley and the
events leading up to the discovery of the body--fairly accurate in
itself, but highly coloured.

"The Record man must have made good use of his time here," I commented,
as I finished reading the despatch. "And--well, they must have done some
hard work in New York to get this story up so completely--see, after
the despatch follow a lot of interviews, and here is a short article on
spontaneous combustion itself."

Harrington and the rest of the family had just come in.

"What's this we hear about the Record having an article?" Harrington
asked. "Read it aloud, Professor, so we can all hear it."

"'Spontaneous human combustion, or catacausis ebriosus,'" began Craig,
"'is one of the baffling human scientific mysteries. Indeed, there can
be no doubt but that individuals have in some strange and inexplicable
manner caught fire and been partially or almost wholly consumed.

"'Some have attributed it to gases in the body, such as carbureted
hydrogen. Once it was noted at the Hotel Dieu in Paris that a body on
being dissected gave forth a gas which was inflammable and burned with a
bluish flame. Others have attributed the combustion to alcohol. A toper
several years ago in Brooklyn and New York used to make money by blowing
his breath through a wire gauze and lighting it. Whatever the cause,
medical literature records seventy-six cases of catacausis in two
hundred years.

"'The combustion seems to be sudden and is apparently confined to
the cavities, the abdomen, chest, and head. Victims of ordinary fire
accidents rush hither and thither frantically, succumb from exhaustion,
their limbs are burn