A closer look
Victorian pseudo-scientists hypothesized that intense mystical rage or excessive alcoholism could cause a human body to undergo spontaneous combustion, literally bursting into flames without any external source of ignition. This terrifying theory was popularized by Charles Dickens in one of his novels, leading the general public to live in absolute fear that their drunk uncle might just explode during Sunday dinner. Modern forensics solved the mystery by demonstrating the wick effect, where a person’s clothing catches fire from a dropped pipe and their own body fat sustains the slow-burning flame for hours. It is deeply tragic yet morbidly amusing that for decades, society believed the human body was essentially a mystical ticking time bomb of pure flammable sin
