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  Autopsy: perforated stomach ulcer that had turned cancerous was the main cause of his death.

Background History

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 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.

References  tml tml