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Who Killed Napoleon Bonaparte?. Background History. In 1815 defeated at Waterloo Exiled to remote volcanic island of St Helena Entourage of about twenty people He lived in and later died in the Longwood House in 1821
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Background History • In 1815 defeated at Waterloo • Exiled to remote volcanic island of St Helena • Entourage of about twenty people • He lived in and later died in the Longwood House in 1821 • Autopsy: perforated stomach ulcer that had turned cancerous was the main cause of his death.
Friends and Suspects? • Merchand, his valet, diaries were published 1950 • the Comte de Montholon, head of household, whom Napoleon regarded as the most faithful of the faithful • the Comte's wife, Albine de Montholon, who was reported to be Napoleon's mistress and also the mother of his illegitimate child • Dr Antommarchi, the Emperor's personal physician • Hudson Lowe the Governor of the island
Merchand Published notes • 1952 Swedish dentist read the recently published account of Napoleon's death by Merchand. • Napoleon was murdered • Number of Napoleon's staff had kept locks of the Emperor's hair • Glasgow University forensic scientist Professor Hamilton Smith, • who had developed techniques to record very small levels of arsenic.
Revisited in 1980 • Research showed a similarly to Gosio's Disease. • During the nineteenth century there had been a number of cases of arsenic poisoning that had caused some bewilderment. Some people became ill but others died. • Arsenic was found in their bodies and foul play was sometimes suspected. • In many cases it did not seem possible that the person had been poisoned deliberately
Back to 1893. • 1893 an Italian Biochemist called Gosio worked out what was happening. • Scheele's Green of 1770
Gosio Discovered • if wallpaper containing Scheele's Green became damp and then became moldy, the mold could carry out a chemical process to get rid of the copper arsenite. • Which converted it to a vapor form of arsenic.
So Who Killed Napoleon? • Although the arsenic was not enough to have killed Napoleon, once he was already ill with a stomach ulcer, the arsenic would have exacerbated his condition. • Certainly some of the symptoms he complained about do correspond to those of arsenic poisoning.
FYI, Yes others were affected • Many of the other people who were with Napoleon on St Helena also became ill and complained of the 'bad air'. • Arsenic poisoning causes stomach pains, diarrhea, shivering and swollen limbs • Napoleon's butler did actually die.
