Sawbones: A Marital Tour of Misguided Medicine - Sawbones: Spontaneous Combustion

Episode Date: August 26, 2014

Welcome to Sawbones, where Dr. Sydnee McElroy and her husband Justin McElroy take you on a whimsical tour of the dumb ways in which we've tried to fix people. This week: This show is on fire. Music: "Medicines" by The Taxpayers (http://thetaxpayers.net)

The that he should be taking as medical advice or opinion. It's for fun. Can you just have fun for an hour, trying out to diagnose your mystery boil? We think you've earned it. So just sit back, relax, and enjoy a moment of distraction from that weird growth, your worth it. Ready to not go! your worth it. Ladies and gentlemen,

I'm so proud of you. I'm proud of you. I'm proud of you. I'm proud of you. I'm proud of you. Hello everybody and welcome to Salvo's unmarried tour of Miss Gideb medicine. I am your co-host Justin Mammarroy. And I'm Sydney Mammarroy. You play this video.

I have a surprise for you. Look at that. It's a pro-efficient bakery. Settling. Well the best I've had actually. I've had a great time. I've had a great time. I've had a great time. I've had a great time. I've had a at that. It's just prohibition bakery. Simulated.

Well the best idea actually. So hey everybody have a go-go. Does everybody have a nice evening? So yeah. Can you spend the day like me? This is your fifth broadcast of the day. And it's is your fifth book, can't stop today. And it's starting to catch up a little bit, but you feel like, I'm pushing up. I can't say anything, it's only my third.

Gosh, you know what, it's hard because we've been grabbing for the show, for these shows, shows, many shows. And we've been also grabbing for a human that will bring me into the world's world. This is probably a little more taxing. Yeah, well technically she's bringing it into the world I'm sort of like... Look at him. Can I get you some gingerbread? Let me get you some gingerbread.

I actually brought him some gingerbread. I was asked for' written. I'm using Jesus' written. I'm using Jesus' written. I'm using Jesus' written. I'm using Jesus' written. I'm using Jesus' written. I'm using Jesus' written. I'm using Jesus' written. I'm using Jesus' written. I'm using Jesus' written. I'm using Jesus' written.

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You got to worry about then, you know, spontaneously catching on fire. Well, I mean, I haven't been worried about it. I was actually catching on fire until this exact at 9.37 on Saturday night. But is that a concern? Well, I read about this. There's a baby in India, baby Rakaul, who since he was born in last May, has caught on fire spontaneously four times. He's okay.

He's a... He's a... He's a liar. But you didn't stop him. He's a liar. You're not. You're not. You were rushing headlong and...

And her neck's sitting had been something quite different. It's a very different time for me to be... I was out of bed for everybody and be like, oh, who knew? A gosh. No, no row. Yeah. But he's doing okay, oh, no. Oh gosh. No role. But he's doing OK. Yeah, he's doing OK. But four times his parents say they've come in the room

and found him just on fire. So spontaneous combustion is happening in rural, pretty regularly. That's what they think. The other option, and they've actually had to move. The other villagers have said like, we don't, could you move something else? I don't know what's happening.

But we don't want to have kids. Could you guys take off? One theory is that it has something to do with like the compound and the walls of the house that they used to like hold them. I think like rubbing the baby on the walls. Like a static cling. I don't know the baby on the walls. Like a static cling time. I don't know.

It's clearly a weird situation. Yeah. But most cases of spontaneous human combustion are. Well, why don't you take you back to the beginning and we can learn all about spontaneous human combustion. Let's do that. First, I want to thank Courtney, who suggested that. I just like Probably not.

Not purely a medical topic, so to speak, but it will work with it. I think it works. So usually I'd say that, whatever our topic is, it dates back to the Egyptians or the Romans or the Greeks. Not so much was spontaneous human combustion. I mean, if people were combusting, they weren't talking about it. Or... Right.

Writing epic poems about it. Dan, there was a number of different things in the secret shape outside of the walls of this home. The first case, most people agree was in 1663, but I found one source that argued, no, no, no, no, no, because there was this one guy in the year 1400 who drank so much wine that he started throwing up fire. Is that a good wine or a barrel? I'm not going to consider that canon though, who we're just going to consider. I'm just going to consider that.

It's the first case of spontaneous human combustion. And basically, when I say that, I mean, that the body is suddenly engulfed in flames. You don't know why. Obviously, it's spontaneous. And you don't necessarily have to die from spontaneous human combustion. Usually you do, but it could just be, well yeah, it could.

So the burning... What's my medical muscles here for a second? Usually if you catch on fire, a lot, or very monetary, or a little, a lot of times you're back from that. But you may just get it. Not a right hole up here. That hole is fine. Well, in light roll, sometimes you can just get burns. And sometimes you can just smoke.

You can just smoke. It comes out of you. Like how? Like a loony do. Like a loony do. You're a physician, don't I don't know. I don't know. I wasn't at the 130 show. I don't know. So, okay, there was an article written in the 1823 where they outlined if we're going to say that somebody spontaneously combusted what traits can we identify. So, they looked over all the cases and they said, okay, here gonna say that somebody's spontaneously combusted, what traits can we identify?

So they looked over all the cases and they said, okay, here's what we find in common, most of the time in these situations. Number one, the person who's spontaneously combusted is an alcoholic. Okay. Well, that makes sense, right? There's more of their blood is flammable. I think it's like science, I think that's not what works.

Just go on. Number two, elderly females, more likely to combust. So far, I'm just kidding. Usually the body had contact with some sort of lighted substance, which... Okay, I'm going, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait a line in substance, there was this spontaneous human combustion. It's like regular, all human combustion. It's human combustion classic. It was 1823, what did we know?

Right, nothing. Now in most of these cases, another feature was that it was usually just the trunk or the chest of the body and maybe the head that burned whereas the extremities were all spared. Wonderful. So you would just find arms and legs lying there. And like in the right shape and like everything else is like ashes. That's not even how fire works. Fire is very rarely like all my job here is done.

I've had a good run and you got to know it a whole new way. I think I consumed this torso. No. Say it all to that. They actually pile up this guy. I included surrounding objects. Like there wasn't a lot of, that's another feature. There's no damage to anything else in the room. Yeah. The person is burned, but the chair they were sitting in, and the carpet, and the draper, and all that stuff that you usually think would burn in a fire is all fine.

Yeah. So that's part of it, too. They also find, in the room, a greasy residue on the walls, ashes and a foul odor. Oh, for wait a minute, you still sound happy. I tried to confront like, what are you talking about? Well, they didn't know. They had these cases that people were finding, you know, okay, they go to a house and they find a guy who's, or I guess, normally female, I should say, who's all burned up except

their arms and their legs, and everything else is intact, and there's nothing else on fire. And the idea was, well, if there was a fire in the house, it should have consumed everything. So what happened? So what they took from all this is that this is the end result of alcoholism Just and remembered to edit out the profanity that you used just a second ago. It was an accident You guys, listen, you're here for the number one brother and brother and we show a later. We're sticking around for that, you won't hear him anymore, so I... I'm not worried about you. You weren't worried about me when I'm listening to this later.

Sorry, go ahead. So there was actually Charles Dickens had a character in Bleak House? See, he's like a real writer and stuffy. Yeah. He was a character that was an alcoholic and died of spontaneous combustion. He was open to other plans of reality. So overall there have been around 200 reported cases so far. And that's when they've been investigated and the coroners were there and the and the police officers, and they all went, I just want to take a scene with their

machine. And that's what's on there just to see. Actually, if there's a picture of a guy going to me. It was even written up in the British Medical Journal. So it was at one point considered a real deal condition. That was in 1938, so no. And they all claim that no matter what other lightened sources they found that that was not that are in a real deal condition. That was in 1938, so no. Not that long ago. And they all claim that no matter what other lighted sources they found, that that was not the reason that the person caught on fire.

It was just magic. And then in the 1970s, it became very popular that instead of it being an end result of alcoholism, that maybe, and this was kind of a Freudian belief, that you could get so depressed, that you became so engulfed in your depression, that it eventually manifested as flames. And it became engulfed in flames.

Yeah, the rising popularity of Jersey Shore is actually directly more of the rising number of people's spontaneously. Is this how popular? What how popular is this program? I'm madman, but how much fire? There's a great book. I want to find it.

It was written in 1995. It's an early 1995. It was called Ablaze, the nextlamation point. Ablaze, the next dimension point. Ablaze. By Larry Arnold, and he proposed a new mechanism that nobody had thought of yet, which is that there is a particle that we haven't discovered yet. It's an enzyme called a pyrotron. Like an electron or neutron or a pyrotron.

And then there are certain certain circumstances when the body's already more flammable, it will cause you to catch on fire. Larry. And this can happen because of alcohol or stress. Okay. So Larry, I don't think that Larry really thought this whole thing through. Well Larry is saying is that everybody can sort of catch on fire. But sometimes you're really, really gonna wanna catch on fire. And those of the moments when you're the most tempted. You're always in a situation where you're a little flammable. But if you get really oily or angry or depressed and you really look.

You get super wet. I'm saying you're saying more flammable. I'm wet. Get super annoyed. I'm saying, you said more flammable. Teenagers. I'm one day. I'm one day. I'm looking right. I think another, sometimes in my life, when I was more potentially flammable than others.

I would like some sort of indicators. There are racial hardware. Something. It was like my risk of flammability. He thought it was when you are stressed and drinking, which terrifies me. I mean, not now, but I mean, I went through residency in the past.

How am I so alive? I don't know. I don't know. So there's some other theories that people have put out there. Maybe it's a build up of methane gas, like, you know, in your intestine. She eats my cake. She's just explode.

She eats it. She eats it. She eats it. She eats it on my cake, so it's going how long you could be able to do what you said. For me, not too. That's going to be a near excuse. That's going to be a nice excuse. Well, you know, you're going to be brushing your flames.

I'm a father of a child that comes in. That electricity has been proposed. Sunspots and cosmic storms. Very specific sunspots and cosmic storms. Very specific sunspots. And so let's talk about some cases. Let me give you some actual examples. So we're on all the way back in the 1700s. Countess Cornelia did Bandy was a victim of spontaneous human combustion. They found her one morning she's singing. This is a lot of like, symposins in there. They found her lane on the floor between her bed and her window and everything was completely burned except

three fingers and her lower legs. Everything else was gone. There were candles present but the wigs were completely intact and nothing had been burned. There was sweat everywhere, nothing was damaged and for some reason there was still a piece of bread on her nightstand and the thought from the investigators was let's try to feed that to the dog. Let's see what happens. The dog wouldn't eat the bread and they were like, there is case closed. This one is good for worse than by fire bread.

This person will pay two dollars for any detectives or so on that one. Why can't we guess Jack or Ripper? Okay, good job. What are you doing? Did you have to do something? You're strong enough, but... You're strong enough, but... Why can't we catch Jack the Ripper? I mean, we're so good at this. We're trying to get the golf hard, but we're going to leave it where it gets closed. I just love the guy. Who proposed that? He was in the room and they were like,

I haven't had any idea. Why would you try? If you had just made a delicious slice of bread, why would you burst into flames more for you to be? Yeah. There was another guy, Jack Angel, who tried to blame Burns. So he got burned when he fell asleep next to a water heater. And he tried to see the company and then somehow they had a doctor

come investigated and examined him and said well the burns appeared to have come from the inside out as opposed to the outside in. I don't know what doctor said that and so then he said okay well I can't make any money off of this way I I combusted. And so then he tried to go on, you know, go on the interview circuit. Okay, so, what did you see him combusted? I don't actually live in this one either, sitting. The most recent was in 2010, other than the baby raw blood, I should say. But the most recent, actually, like the corner declared it, this is what is written, like this is in 2010. This is written down as the cause of death was Michael Fertig and Ireland who was found dead in his home a few feet from my

like fireplace but they didn't think the fireplace had anything to do with it well why would he he was the only thing that was burned nothing else in the room was burned it was just him and the arms and legs were spared and it was here usual. I am. Maybe he didn't want to put it out. I've been that tired. Listen. Two, five thought casts in one day. I called a fire and I'm like, man.

I don't know how to catch them. Now, he was, again, a known alcoholic, but if you're drunk and you fall asleep, it makes the fire. What am I? A serious fire, is it? What am I a serious, a vinging angel? Punish his drunk people near all those flames. How does it keep working, leaving his smell?

What is a secret to your brain is I? Now, just to be fair, we've only talked about human combustion. Animals can combust. No sitting there. No. I mean, they can combust. They're dead whales can. They can fill with methane and blow up.

They can. I mean, they can, I screw it. There's an amp. There's an amp that has a big, it has like big poison filled sacks and they can contract their muscles and their thorax and make them explode to like protect the colony. It's like a, I guess it's sort of like a kamikaze.

It's very hard to make that. Yeah, like it's, I mean they're, they're full in tune. Much love, much respect that I didn't. That's just a joke. That's right right there. Some tones. I don't know how to make it that much. Except, except, except you and our tub.

But the rest is, so make no sure you guys, I'm not going to pull up to the deck. Do you have, do you have boys and filled sacs that you can contract your money? I can't let them have a beforehand because of that. There's some toes that develop this as a defense mechanism against crows. But I don't know what kind of defense mechanism it is. If you explode. Remember I went back, I got exploded, then don't admit it. It's because you can explode. Remember, I'll go back, I got exploded things.

Don't do it. It's an empty threat. I'm never going to go through with it. They might have made it up. You know how far. You know how far. You know how far. Sorry.

What? Make it one. Oh, why? They're wide-legged. Of all the amphibians, I think frogs are probably the petriest. Seven million dogs. Who's that? Probably aren't amphibians, but like this isn are probably the petrius. Several millions of...

Probably aren't any amphibians, but like this isn't a show or a lie. Yeah. That's okay. I'm not an expert on that, so I can't say anything. I can't correct you. Did you? Yeah, you did. So let's talk about some real explanations.

Sure. So obviously most people think that spontaneous human combustion as a pseudo science is not a real medical condition. Almost all of the cases involve somebody who isn't very mobile. So that's what we talked about over the females. A lot of them, unfortunately, were at the elderly or somebody who was morbidly obese or somebody who was very ill. And maybe if they caught on fire couldn't get up right away. So that was part of it.

Sigereds are almost always found and they don't tell you this. They almost always went cigarette land ground half-bar. Or completely cigarettes. How does this keep happening? Some of the people who have been called spontaneous human combustion work found out have had heart attacks. So if you have a heart attack and you're smoking a cigarette, you don't have to why there's their greasy staying there. Well, that's interesting. So that's something called the Wink effect. So this really is, so this is really gross by the way. I'm ready.

So that's the the person has had a heart attack or they're completely passed out, something where they're not gonna wake up instantly. There's some sort of fire source, an ember from the fireplace, a cigarette, whatever. It catches your clothes on fire and it burns very slowly and it burns the skin a little bit creating opening in the skin to the fat that lies beneath. Okay. Then the fat starts to liquefy. Sorry it does.

It comes out and soaks the clothing and then it's like a like a wick in a candle. It just keeps the fire going because it's liquefied fat. It's a foil. So it turns you into a human candle. So it turns you into a human candle. So it turns you into a human candle. And you have all of us, even the finest among us, have plenty of fat to completely murder. Don't even trip.

I don't care how. They all have. You're the king of kings. Keep on drawing, okay? There's no fucking camera. The salad does not, or the camera is, like, I'm never. And that's part of the theory. So, I arms and legs are spared.

It's because there's not as much fat there. And they've already burned enough up. And the kind of, the fire just burns itself out. But it's going to get us to the extremities. Perfect sense. So, that kind of the fire just burns itself out as it gets to the extremities. Perfect. So that kind of makes sense. And they do think that there could be people who are at higher risk because of higher acetone levels in the blood, which would include alcoholics.

So you would kind of, you would kind of ride with that. Perhaps diabetics. I want to ride it. Or maybe people on adkins. I haven't been on adkins for four or nine days. No, but it's another good reason they'll do it again. OK, I'm not going to act until 40. Another good reason to do that. I'm sorry. Of all the risks that I have, the risk of still being faffired or a person with a risk of maybe

a catch on fire. Because you look bacon so much. Maybe you're going to want to bake the bacon, you've got to find it. I was looking at that. gonna happen. It's not having a breath now. Okay, it was literally four years ago. What is it? Do you want me to tell you what's really like the BG? It's like, what are you talking about?

I'm gonna keep doing it. Did he have all done? So well. And you would always watch running to steal and he wouldn't pay attention to my gun. I'm scared. It's too exact because of that. I'm like, go.

People have been so well on their diets and now they're like, I heard on a podcast, I can't do the touch on the fire. I'm back on the bread. One researcher wanted to prove the acetone theory, by the way. This is my life. I just have to die this because I think the next one. To prove it, he was like, how can I simulate this? Okay, I'm going to soak pork in acetone, marinate pork in acetone,

and then I'm going to, I'm going to form buddy. I'm so sorry, buddy. I'm so sorry, buddy. It's a close on it. That's just for him. I'm so sorry, buddy. I'm so sorry, buddy. I'm so sorry, buddy. I'm so sorry, buddy.

I'm so sorry, buddy. I'm so sorry, buddy. I'm so sorry, buddy. I'm so sorry, buddy. I don't know. So how do you want to do a walk-o-sauce? I told you once, I told you 100 times. You know what I mean? What does your mother says? I am a scientist.

I do science. I can't ever support me. You get the red polo shirt he likes that one. He's going to go, he and he's wearing something stylish. Anyway, that, friends, is spontaneous human combustion. This is your burnout. We want to say thank you so much to the people's and brown theater who have it as here.

Thank you to you for coming out and listening to our show. It really means the world's most. If you have not listened to this before if maybe you just came for the other show You are like what was that? You're gonna new episode every Tuesday at sawmanshow.com so you can listen to us there I think the tax figures for their Song medicines, which is their intro in our show. They're a man, not just like the ad, not just like the general title.

The entire interview, thanks to my dad for doing this playwork, both before the end of the show. Cheers. I don't know why he didn't want to watch the song. That's because he's the one who's chill backstage. We all want to do something unexpected. And I think it's going to do for a sip that you so much to all be here. My name is Justin McRoy and I'm Cindy McRoy and as always, don't control your head. Thank you.