Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1867-02-26
sISGULAR CATAsTROPmE.
Case of Spontaneous Combustion.

Frem the Indianapolis Sentinel, Saturday.
We are indebted to DR.. M. /. White
side, dentist, of this city, for the parti-
I culars of most singular and appalling
catastrophe that occurred yesterday
morning in the town Of Columbus, about
! forty miles south of this city, on the
Madison railroad. About eight O'Clock
the attention of some citizens on the
street was attracted to the liquor shop of
German by the name of Andrew Nolte,
by slight smoke issuing from it. He
had long been known to be a very in
temperate man, and recently, it was
supposed ia consequence of his wife
leaving hissl, and applying for a
divorce ON account of his confirmed
drunkenness, more constantly and
beastly drunk than usual. On entering,
they found him lying dead behind his
counter, upon a board which was used to
keep his feet off the wet floor. with his
head near a whisky barrel. His clothes
were still burning. His lips had been
entirely burned away, leaving a ghastly
hole, in which his tongue was seen
burned to a crisp, as was the inside of his
mouth and his throat. His nose was
| burned as IL by fire coming ont of his
nostrils. The remainder of the body was
scoTched where the burning clothes had
touched, but showed no other indication
of fire. The hands were drawn up TO the
mouth, as if to close it, or shut Off some
dreaded thing from it. There was no
fire in the room that DIR. Whiteside
could see, and certainly none near the
horrible corpse.
A revolver was found beside it, but
all the charges were in it, and no marks
Of injuries, except from the fire, were
discovered, so that the death could not
have been caHsed by suicide. But if it
had been, this lips burned entirely off
and the crisped tongue, throat and nose
would have been still more ineXplicsble,
as the fire was manifestly OF very recent
conference.-the clothes still burning
and it could not have been applied after
death by some other person, without de-
lection, or some mark OF other that
would indicate where the fire came from
aud how If was used. But if it could
have been thus applied, it is impossible
to believe that it was, for there could be
no motiYe to burn a dead man, especially
about the mogth and nOae. The samb
fact of the, singular character
and locality of the burning, in
volving only the air passages, pre-
cludes all idea of s. death by violence.
No murderer or robber would try to kill
a man by setting him on fire, or, if he
should, he would not and could not put
fire TO his mouth and nose only. No
hgpothesia Of murder seems to be tena7
bic, and that of suicide. is even more
absurd We must therefore conclude
that the death was caused by spontaneous
combustion, or by the burning of inflam-
mable gasses, generated in the whisky
rotten carcsse, and escaping By the lungs
and air passages. This might have beea
caused by an attempt to light cigar
with match or other fame. There are
several authenticated cases of spOnta-
neous combustion on record, as our
physicians know-Dickens has cited a
few in justification Of the incident
which forms so frightful a scene Of his
Bleak House but we question if
more clearly marked case than this at
Columbus has ever occurred. We may
note that he had on a soldiers blouse, 2
flannel undershirt and a cotton over
shirt, and that his hair was not burned.