Burning Questions: Spontaneous Human Combustion in Early Modern Europe
Keyword(s):
Spontaneous human combustion shocked and confused people in early modern France. Without a body to examine or eyewitness reports savants had diffi culty determining its causes. Nonetheless, people like Claude-Nicolas Le Cat and Pierre-Aimé Lair, sought to determine the causes of these events and provide a logical explanation for their appearance. This article analyzes the various arguments used by scholars to help rationalize a phenomenon that was simultaneously a medical conundrum and a holdover from the age of marvels and wonders.