Time has not seemed to change much regarding lawyers and the court system. In the case of Jarndyce and Jarndyce the system seems quite proud of how long it has stretched out the case and the exorbitant amount of fees that it has managed to occupy of the estate in question. Even in today's time it seems that lawyers and probate courts will spin their wheels and delay the outcome until they have managed to sufficiently pick an estate clean.
I was not aware that the theory of spontaneous combustion dates so far back in history. Society in the 18th century was just as confused by it as we are today. The only difference that I really see is that today scientists and alleged experts will deny that people can just spontaneously combust, that there must be some other explanation. They just don't know what it is.
