"'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 burned, and their clothing is all
destroyed. But in catacausis they are stricken down without
warning, the limbs are rarely burned, and only the clothing in
contact with the head and chest is consumed. The residue is like
a distillation of animal tissue, grey and dark, with an
overpoweringly fetid odour. They are said to burn with a
flickering stifled blue flame, and water, far from arresting the
combustion, seems to add to it. Gin is particularly rich in
inflammable, empyreumatic oils, as they are called, and in most
cases it is recorded that the catacausis took place among
gin-drinkers, old and obese.
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