Murder or illness? —Napoleon's death in doubt

On May 5, 1821, on the island of St. Helena, a small island in the Atlantic Ocean, a great figure who once shocked Europe entered the moment of death. His last words were so faint that only his attendants close to him could hear them: "France... The army... Commander-in-Chief... Josephine... At 5:49, the man passed away. He was napoleon I, emperor of the French Empire.

Napoleon once made the whole of Europe tremble, and almost the whole of Europe united against him, but he repeatedly defeated him. Napoleon was a brilliant military prodigy, why did he suddenly die at the age of 52?

There are various mysteries about the cause of his death, which have been discussed and explored. Seven days before Napoleon's death, he wrote to his physician Antomas: "My death is not far off, and after my death I want you to dissect my body, and I entrust you not to miss anything suspicious in this autopsy." At about 2 p.m. on May 6, following Napoleon's will, Dr. Antomash personally performed an autopsy on the body. Among those present were Napoleon's attendants, as well as 10 British officials and 6 British doctors stationed on the island. After the autopsy, doctors were unable to agree on a statement on the cause of death. Seven doctors each handed over 4 disparate reports, and the only consensus they reached was to confirm the discovery of an ulcer in Napoleon's stomach. Antomash considers this to be a carcinogenic legacy, while British doctors believe it is a cancer caused by hard cancer.

At that time, a doctor named Sauter found napoleon's liver enlarged and ulcerated, but later the British governor of the island ordered Sauter to remove this discovery in the autopsy report. Because this discovery was contrary to the official British intentions, they feared that the British would accuse the British of exileing Napoleon to such a small island with such a harsh climate and liver disease. Because Napoleon's father died of pyloric cancer, it is also believed that Napoleon died of this disease. Of course, there are also people who do not believe this statement, believing that Napoleon died of diseases brought about by bad weather.

At the beginning of the 20th century, a new theory emerged in Medical Journals in France and Germany, and they believed that Napoleon was suffering from a tropical disease. The disease was contracted during Napoleon's expeditions to Egypt and Syria in 1789, and while he was exiled to the island, the old disease recurred, resulting in death.

In 1955, a dentist named Stan Fosshoferbode in Gothenburg, Sweden, made a new discovery while studying Napoleon's historical data, and he found that Napoleon had a number of diseases in the last years of his life: alternating drowsiness and insomnia, swelling of his feet, loss of body hair, palpitations, and exposure of the root of his teeth. These are not like symptoms of cancer, but more like chronic arsenic poisoning. Determined to unravel the mystery, Fossupolpold proposed the idea of using neutron activation analysis to determine the amount of arsenic in Napoleon's hair. The next step was to find a way to get Napoleon's hair. After much effort, Fausseferpold finally got a few of Napoleon's hairs from a museum in Paris, France. He measured it by nuclear bombardment and found that the amount of arsenic in Napoleon's hair was 13 times higher than normal. This discovery, coupled with an important clue they obtained in the literature: Napoleon's coffin was opened in 1840, and it was found that after 20 years, Napoleon's body was still well preserved, especially the face was almost exactly the same as when he was buried. They deduced from this that it was precisely because arsenic played a role in protecting the remains from decay. Arsenic poisoning was also the cause of Napoleon's death, and he died of poisoning.

They further analyzed according to the literature that the earl of Montaulong, a squire at Napoleon's side, was the murderer. This man has always followed Napoleon, and at the time of Napoleon's first abdication, he had defected to the restored Bourbon Dynasty. After the Battle of Waterloo, Montolón returned to Napoleon. What made Montorón, who had betrayed Napoleon, return to his master when he was most depressed? And also allowed his wife, Albin, to maintain a warm relationship with Napoleon? Researchers believe that Montorón did all this to gain Napoleon's trust. Through historical investigation, they found that Montorón was instructed by the brother of Louis XVIII of the Bourbon dynasty, Count Artois, to repeatedly put small doses of arsenic cream into the wine that Napoleon drank, which eventually led to Napoleon's chronic poisoning and death.

Since then, the legend that Napoleon was poisoned has spread through the world. However, there are also many people who disagree with this statement. American doctor Robert believes that Napoleon died of a severe male hormone disorder, which led to the death of Napoleon's male hormone disorder. The British historian David Jones believes that Napoleon did die of arsenic poisoning. But the arsenic came from the wallpaper in his bedroom, not from someone else's deliberate poisoning. Because at that time, it was indeed popular to use green wallpaper coated with arsenic, inhaling arsenic evaporated from the wallpaper and causing death occurred repeatedly.

Jones once examined the wallpaper in Napoleon's bedroom and found a very high arsenic content. Canadian scientists tested Napoleon's hair with a more accurate neutron bombardment method, and they found that the amount of arsenic in the hair was not high, but rather the content of antimony was higher. They believe that napoleon took an overdose of antimony-containing drugs a few years before his death, but this amount of antimony did not cause death. By inference, they believed that Napoleon had died of stomach cancer.

There are many opinions about the cause of Napoleon's death, and there are different reasons. Perhaps all this is as one French historian put it: "In history, the name Napoleon has always been followed by a question mark." ”