1808: Laire’s Fiery Death

In the 1813 edition of J. Dan Metzger and J. J. Ballard's Principes de Médecine Légale ou Judiciaire [Principles of Forensic or Judicial Medicine] they give the following brief report.

        In the Winter of 1808 in Saulieu, France, a woman by the name of Laire, nearly sixty years old and an alcoholic, was found "the day after a debauch" burned in a horrible fashion. Her body was stretched out in front of a small fire, and three qurters of her remains were destroyed. The trunk of her body was charred, while her hands, feet, and head were untouched. No furniture in the apartment had been damaged by fire, though the house was full of a suffocating smoke.