When Napoleon died in exile on the island of St. Helena in 1821, he was poisoned by arsenic, or is it succumbed to stomach cancer his doctors say? The debate, smoldering for years, received a public release this month in Paris.
Ben Weider, tycoon fitness equipment and student longtime Napoleon who heads the International Napoleonic Society based in Montreal, made the case for arsenic poisoning before a group 'french historians, scientists and politicians at a luncheon on May 5, the 179th anniversary of the death of Napoleon. He argues that Napoleon was quietly assassinated - to avoid any possibility of his return to France - by infusions of arsenic in his wine. He said several hair analyzed by the FBI in 1995 showed high arsenic levels ranging from 20 to 50 parts per million. (The average today is about 1 ppm.) Statements by those around Napoleon in his last years are full of allusions to physical problems - such as light sensitivity, hair loss, sleep problems, and neurological symptoms - compatible with arsenic poisoning, he said. In addition, he says the autopsy reports show that Napoleon died fat, which is incompatible with withering away of cancer.
The leaders of the Napoleonic Society of America, based in Clearwater, Florida, say the arsenic theory Weider is complete hogwash. President Robert Snibbe says there is no evidence that the analyzed hair was actually Napoleon, and the general lack of a main symptoms of arsenic poisoning: palms and soles of the feet leathery . Philip Corso, a plastic surgeon at the Medical School of Yale University, said there were five large autopsy reports by eight doctors, who all agree that Napoleon suffered extensive stomach cancer . According to Corso, Napoleon's father died of stomach cancer, and he himself had predicted he would die of the same disease.
To solve the question of identity, Corso gave some hair to scientists from the State University of Pennsylvania, but he says they need a lot more hair to get any useful DNA. Meanwhile, Snibbe trying to get permission to dig a nephew of Napoleon who is buried in Florida, to get a DNA reference family. All sides, of course, would settle the matter by digging big man himself from his tomb at Les Invalides.
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