Bedroom Burning In The 16th Century

For as yet scientifically unknown reasons, times occur when an unsuspecting person can just burst into flames and be incinerated. This is referred to in the scientific world as Spontaneous Human Combustion or SHC. There are many documented cases throughout history.
The earliest cases go as far back as the early 16th century. Then there are the ones that are as recent as 1998 but have no better explanation of what happen then the ones in the 16th century did. There are truly only two types of cases: fatal and non-fatal.
The fatal cases of SHC represent three-quarters of all the reported incidents. The most common of these cases is the famous "bedroom burnings" in which a victim is found as a pile of ashes with only limbs remaining.
These cases are the ones that mass media tend to cover most and is what most people think of when they hear about spontaneous human combustion. Nearly half of the cases are "bedroom burnings" Another common case under the fatal category are the witnessed combustions, in which people are actually seen by witnesses to burst into flames. Most of the time witnesses claim that there was no other source of ignition and/or the flames were seen to come directly from the victim's skin. These cases present the fact that maybe SHC has more to do with the supernatural than science. Unfortunately, most of theses cases are poorly documented and usually unconfirmed. The second major type of SHC is the non-fatal cases. The victims usually don't know anymore than the investigators do. The good thing about this is that the victims are alive to tell about what happened and cause most SHC skeptics to take a look at the picture again. Non-fatal cases usually incorporate one or more of the following features. The most common is the mysterious flames. This is where a victim will just begin to emit flames form their body. Some victims claim they feel heat while others
The human body is mostly made up of water and the only thing that really burns readily is the human fat and methane. When a corpse is cremated it requires a considerable amount of heat and a long period of time. Sometimes the bones must actually be crushed. A chemical reaction in the human body would require much doing like eating hay infested with bacteria. Even so only the intestines would probably burn. Many people have theories and explanations for the phenomena. The theory most recognized by the science world is known as the "wick effect." It gives the most probable, scientific, and sound reason for SHC. In this theory, it is said that the body is devoured by its own body fat which is ignited by an outside source. This theory claims that a human body wrapped in clothes is like a candle inside out. The clothes act as the wick while the body fat is like the fuel. In 1998 a Dr. John de Haan of the California Criminalistic Institute set out to prove the "wick effect" theory. He wrapped a dead pig in a blanket, doused it with one liter of gasoline and ignited it. He used a pig because its body fat is much like that of a human being. Even the bones of the pig were destroyed after five hours of continuous burning. The result was very similar to that of a SHC