He absorbed arsenic throughout all his life

Feb 13, 2008 08:39 GMT  ·  By

Napoleon ruled Europe at his will for 20 years, until his ultimate defeat in the battle of Waterloo, in 1815. Imprisoned, he was exiled by the British in St. Helena, one of the most isolated islands in the world, in Southern Atlantic Ocean. He mysteriously died there on May 5, 1821.

Arsenic poisoning has been for long the most common theory. A 2006 research points the emperor might have died of a very advanced case of gastric cancer due to an ulcer-causing bacterial infection, not a hereditary disposition to the cancer or arsenic poisoning. At the time of Napoleon's death, the autopsy indicated a stomach cancer as the cause of decease and, in 1938, it was found that his father also died of stomach cancer. Rumors of arsenic poisoning sparked in 1961, as a high level of arsenic was found in his hair.

Autopsy and physical descriptions did not depict arsenic poisoning, like hemorrhage inside the heart or skin, lung or bladder cancers. But some regarded the weight loss of Napoleon, of at least 20 pounds in the last six months of his life, as a sign of gastric cancer. The military life of Napoleon favored the condition: a diet full of salt-preserved foods, but sparse in fruits and vegetables.

A new research further dismisses the theory of arsenic poisoning. The analysis has found high levels of arsenic in Napoleon Bonaparte's hair throughout his life, thus he was not poisoned at the end of his life while living in exile on Saint Helena, but rather he absorbed arsenic constantly throughout his life.

The team at the University of Milano-Bicocca and the University of Pavia investigated the arsenic levels in hair samples taken from Napoleon Bonaparte along his life (from when he was a boy in Corsica, during his exile on the Island of Elba, on the day of his death and on the day after his death).

The team also investigated samples from Napoleon's son (the King of Rome) from 1812, 1816, 1821 and 1826, but also from the Empress Josephine, collected upon her death in 1814, and 10 living individuals. The hair samples came from the Glauco-Lombardi Museum in Parma (Italy), the Malmaison Museum in Paris and the Napoleonic Museum in Rome.

The hair was investigated via "neutron activation" (placed in capsules in the core of a small nuclear reactor). This way, the sample is not destroyed and the technique comes with detailed results using samples with small mass, like human hairs. All the samples had traces of arsenic.

But the level of arsenic in the hair samples from two centuries ago appeared to be 100 times greater than the average levels found in living persons. Napoleon's hair had an average arsenic level of about 10: 1,000,000, whereas the arsenic level in samples of modern hair was 0.1: 1,000,000. It appears that at that time, people ingested arsenic in quantities currently considered toxic.

There were no significant differences in arsenic amounts between Napoleon as a boy and his final days in Saint Helena. It is clear that Napoleon was not poisoned with arsenic in Saint Helena, but he constantly absorbed arsenic throughout his life.