out, and with it a jet of gas, which was instantly fired by the
candle. The blaze igniting the shop, a passer-by seized a wooden pail
and threw its contents upon the flames, which flared up immediately
with tenfold power. It is scarcely necessary to state that the water
was whiskey, and that the country was Old Ireland.

Spontaneous combustion is at present very little understood, though
chemists have of late turned their attention to the subject. It
forms, however, no inconsiderable item in the list of causes of fires.
There can be no question that many of those that occur at
railway-stations, and buildings, are due to the fermentation which
arises among oiled rags. Over-heating of waste, which includes
shoddy, sawdust, cotton, &c., is a fearful source of conflagrations.
The cause of most fires which have arisen from spontaneous combustion
is lost in the consequence. Cases now and then occur where the
firemen have been able to detect it, as for instance at Hibernia Wharf
in 1846, one of Alderman Humphreys' warehouses. It happened that a
porter had swept the sawdust from the floor into a heap, upon which a
broken flask of olive-oil that was placed above, dripped its contents.
To these elements of combustion the sun added its power, and sixteen
hours afterwards the fire broke out. Happily it was instantly
extinguished; and the agents that produced it were caught, red-handed
as it were, in the act. The chances are that such a particular
combination of circumstances might not occur again in a thousand
years. The sawdust will not be swept again into such a position under
the oil, or the bottle will not break over the sawdust, or the sun
will not shine in on them to complete the fatal sum. It is an
important fact, however, to know that oiled sawdust, warmed by the
sun, will fire in sixteen hours, as it accounts for a number of
conflagrations in saw-mills, which never could be traced to any