Spontaneous Human Combustion

A rare condition called Spontaneous Human Combustion (SHC), seen only in about 200 people across the world in the past 300 years has been reported in an infant from Tamil Nadu. The infant who was born two and a half months ago has virtually been in flames four times so far. According to doctors, the baby is healthy and his organs are fine. Paediatrician Dr. Narayan Babu said the baby emitted some highly combustible gas through the skin pores, which made him catch fire.

Yet another example to this is the case of Henry Thomas, who was found burnt to death in his living room in 1980.His entire body was incinerated, leaving only his skull and a portion of his each leg below the knee.Half of the chair in which he was sitting was also destroyed. Body of another old man, Dr. Bentley was found in his Pennsylvania home in Dec. 1966. In fact, only a part of his foot and slippered foot were found and the remaining body had turned to ashes.The first known account of spontaneous human combustion came from Danish anatomist, Thomas Bartholin in 1663 who described how a women in Paris 'went up in ashes and smoke' while she was sleeping.
What makes the charred bodies so peculiar is that the extremities ( hands, legs and face) often remain intact. It has also been the case at times that the internal organs of the person has not undergone any damage but the outer body is charred.

 The exact reason for this rare disorder not known yet but some doctors are speculating that it is due to the combustion of alcohol in the presence of gases inside the body which happens only when the alcohol content in blood increases beyond a certain level. Others say, it is the high acetone content in the body which ultimately results in high amount of alcohol in blood.
Ball lightning, a mysterious and much debated phenomena itself has been proposed as a possible cause for the spontaneous combustion. A lot of other theories have been proposed as well but none has been found satisfactory.