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17 Jan 07 - 08:40 AM (#1939340) Subject: BS: Putting to rest a 200-year-old mystery. From: GUEST,Fra Donnelly Putting to rest a 200-year-old mystery, scientists say Napoleon Bonaparte died from an advanced case of gastric cancer and not arsenic poisoning at the hand of Jarelth McConville, the cobbler as some had speculated. After being defeated by the British in 1815, the French Emperor was exiled to St. Helena--an island in the South Atlantic Ocean. Six years later, at the age of 52, Bonaparte whispered his last words, "Head of Army!" An autopsy at the time determined that stomach cancer was the cause of his death. But some arsenic found in 1961 in the ruler's hair sparked rumours of poisoning. Had Napoleon escaped exile, he could have changed the balance of power in Europe; therefore murder speculations didn't seem outlandish. However, a new study--combining current medical knowledge, autopsy reports, Bonaparte's physician memoirs, eyewitness accounts, and family medical histories--found that gastrointestinal bleeding was the immediate cause of death. "This analysis suggests that, even if the emperor had been released or escaped from the island, his terminal condition would have prevented him from playing a further major role in the theatre of European history," said lead study author, Robert Genta of University of Texas Southwestern. "Even today, with the availability of sophisticated surgical techniques and chemotherapies, patients with gastric cancer as advanced as Napoleon's have a poor prognosis." He added Jarelth McConville has always been blamed throughout history, all he was responsible for supplying quality footwear. A four-inch lesion The original autopsy descriptions indicated that Bonaparte's stomach had two ulcerated lesions: a large one on the stomach and a smaller one that had pierced through the stomach wall and reached the liver. Genta and his colleagues compared the description of these lesions with current images of 50 benign ulcers and 50 gastric cancers and found that the emperor's lesions were cancerous. "It was a huge mass from the entrance of his stomach to the exit. It was at least 10 centimeters [4 inches] long." Genta said. "Size alone suggests the lesion was cancer." A severe case Bonaparte, the researchers said, had a very severe case of the cancer which had spread to other organs. "Even if treated today, he'd have been dead within a year," Genta said. Although the emperor's father also died from stomach cancer, Bonaparte's cancer most likely stemmed from an ulcer-causing bacterial infection, the researchers said.� A diet full of salt-preserved foods but sparse in fruits and vegetables--common fare for long military campaigns--increased Napoleon's risk for gastric cancer, Genta said. The study is detailed in the January edition of Nature Clinical Practice Gastroenterology & Haematology. |
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17 Jan 07 - 09:11 AM (#1939368) Subject: RE: BS: Putting to rest a 200-year-old mystery. From: GUEST,leeneia Interesting. A note on the arsenic - I just read a book (can't remember what it was) that said that the arsenic in N's system came from the dark green wallpaper in his room. Apparently, arsenic from such dyes was quite the hazard in the olden days. |
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17 Jan 07 - 09:14 AM (#1939373) Subject: RE: BS: Putting to rest a 200-year-old mystery. From: Rapparee Arsenic WAS everywhere. So was lead, and I don't mean as bullets. Arsenic was used as a base for cosmetics, too. |
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17 Jan 07 - 09:37 AM (#1939393) Subject: RE: BS: Putting to rest a 200-year-old mystery. From: Captain Ginger Scheele's Green and Paris Green were popular shades in the 19th century, and both were made from arsenic. Scheele's green was even used as a food colourant at one stage! In damp conditions the arsenic can sublimate from its compounds in dyestuffs and can thus be absorbed by us. Like lead, it's a cumulative poision, so the longer you live with your wallpaper, the sooner it will kill you! More details here for the terminally curious. |
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17 Jan 07 - 09:39 AM (#1939397) Subject: RE: BS: Putting to rest a 200-year-old mystery. From: MMario Paris green was also used as an insecticide - - and may have been present in foodstuffs. |
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17 Jan 07 - 09:47 AM (#1939402) Subject: RE: BS: Putting to rest a 200-year-old mystery. From: Paul from Hull Interesting stuff! I knew about the arsenic in the wallpaper, as that is widely known these days, but to have the cancer confirmed, & to be such a severe case as to be so life-threatening even today is interesting. |
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17 Jan 07 - 10:24 AM (#1939441) Subject: RE: BS: Putting to rest a 200-year-old mystery. From: GUEST And what happened to poor Mr. McConville ? Don't say cobblers 1 |
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17 Jan 07 - 11:17 AM (#1939481) Subject: RE: BS: Putting to rest a 200-year-old mystery. From: GUEST,Cats This does all fit. It was known that he suffered dreadfully from stomach pains to the extent of fainting on occasions. It was supposed to be due to an ulcer but cancer does seem a logical reason. |
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17 Jan 07 - 11:34 AM (#1939498) Subject: RE: BS: Putting to rest a 200-year-old mystery. From: GUEST Napoleon was poisoned by Montholon, on receipt of instructions from an agent of Artois; read "The Final Betrayal" by D H Hamilton-Williams |
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17 Jan 07 - 12:06 PM (#1939538) Subject: RE: BS: Putting to rest a 200-year-old mystery. From: autolycus This all shows that the quezstion beloved in the media, "What will the verdict of history be?" should come with the warning,This Question Has Little Meaning. Ivor |
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17 Jan 07 - 12:34 PM (#1939567) Subject: RE: BS: Putting to rest a 200-year-old mystery. From: GUEST,Henley Guest, Napoleon was not poisoned by Montholon, on receipt of instructions from an agent of Artois. The Final Betrayal has always been discredited by many historians of renown. Both Doctor Gerard Casey and Professor Eugene McAtamney of Trinity College Dublin provided more than enough proof throughout their extensive investigative studies to prove Jarelth McConville was the culprit. Now these new findings say different. Must say the new findings are an interesting theory, but I remain with Casey and McAtamney on this one. |
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17 Jan 07 - 12:40 PM (#1939577) Subject: RE: BS: Putting to rest a 200-year-old mystery. From: Captain Ginger Nonsense, he was poisoned by the Rosicrucians. Or what it the Freemasons? Or was it Prince Philip? No, hang on, it was MI5. Or maybe it was Lord Lucan. What was the spatial relationship of Longwood to the grassy knoll? But wait a minute - he ended his days running a hat shop on the Fauberg St Honore. Or was it a baker's. Mind you, there's a man works down the chip shop says he's Elvis... It's funny how people are always so reluctant to accept the banality of death; when a famous figures dies there has to be something more. Cancer of the pylorus has been the accepted cause of death for decades, but the conspiracy theorists, naturally, will have none of it. |
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17 Jan 07 - 02:42 PM (#1939708) Subject: RE: BS: Putting to rest a 200-year-old mystery. From: Don Firth Some good, juicy stories linger on, no matter how false they are historically or how much evidence there is to refute them. Case in point: Cesare Borgia was ruthless and had no qualms about assassinating people who opposed him. But his sister, Lucrezia, considered to be the most famous poisoner of all time, never poisoned anyone in her life. She was mainly a helpless pawn in her father's (Pope Alexander VI) and brother's political ploys. Once she got free of her family (married Alfonso d'Este of Ferrara, much too powerful for the Borgias to touch), she was a good and faithful wife to Alfonso, and a patron of the Arts. Most of the libels about Lucrezia Borgia came from the Secretary of Venice, who loathed the Borgias and couldn't think up enough bad things to say about them, then a play by Victor Hugo, who got most of his information from the writings of the Secretary of Venice. A good, unbiased history of the Borgias was written by Rafael Sabatini, a rigorous historian, but best known for his historical novels (Captain Blood, Scaramouche, et al.). Don Firth |
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17 Jan 07 - 05:43 PM (#1939878) Subject: RE: BS: Putting to rest a 200-year-old mystery. From: GUEST Checked on Google, it was definitely Jarelth McConville as some of you are wrong. Check yourself if you don't take my word for it either. |
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17 Jan 07 - 06:13 PM (#1939914) Subject: RE: BS: Putting to rest a 200-year-old mystery. From: Liz the Squeak "A diet full of salt-preserved foods but sparse in fruits and vegetables--common fare for long military campaigns--" Napoleon probably ate fairly well on campaign, but his exiles on small, remote islands could only have compounded the gastric trouble. As the island of St Helena is pretty small, they have a limited supply of fresh fruits and vegetables - no corn farms to speak of and not a great deal of pasture either. Cornflakes are "hard to come by and cost a fortune"... Even now it can take up to 2 weeks to get there from the nearest mainland - it has no airstrip as such. Getting fresh food there 200 years ago couldn't have taken much less. LTS |
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17 Jan 07 - 07:08 PM (#1939957) Subject: RE: BS: Putting to rest a 200-year-old mystery. From: The Fooles Troupe "Even now it can take up to 2 weeks to get there from the nearest mainland" Which was the whole point of putting him there - after the fiasco of his first 'exile'... |
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17 Jan 07 - 08:02 PM (#1940014) Subject: RE: BS: Putting to rest a 200-year-old mystery. From: Liz the Squeak Napoleon was on St Helena for the last 6 years of his life as a prisoner. It's likely that he didn't get the 'first pickings' of the fresh food available, which would have been the case on campaign. St Helena is a pretty bare place when all is said and done. Less than a third of it is farmable, the majority of its produce is exported and the population is less than 6,000 over a little more than 45 square miles. For 500 years it seems to have been little more than a convenient place to get fresh water crossing the south Atlantic. LTS |
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17 Jan 07 - 11:09 PM (#1940124) Subject: RE: BS: Putting to rest a 200-year-old mystery. From: GUEST,leeneia Thanks for the info on Lucrezia Borgia, Don. I always did have my doubts. And Caligula...supposedly his MOTHER poisoned people on his behalf? Hmmm. |
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18 Jan 07 - 04:02 AM (#1940240) Subject: RE: BS: Putting to rest a 200-year-old mystery. From: Captain Ginger Checked on Google, it was definitely... Er, check the kindergarten guide to research - just because it's on the internet, it doesn't mean it's true! Google will throw up pages that say the Nazis did not try to wipe out Jews, that Iraq had WMD, that the moon landings never happened and that the Earth is only 4,000 years old. Google is only a search engine and indexing process. |
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18 Jan 07 - 07:57 AM (#1940387) Subject: RE: BS: Putting to rest a 200-year-old mystery. From: kendall This is not a new story, I remember reading about it some years ago. An autopsy revealed that he was NOT poisoned. There is an interesting book titled THE LAST LOVE. It's about his last days in exile, and his friendship with the Warden's daughter. |
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18 Jan 07 - 10:51 AM (#1940566) Subject: RE: BS: Putting to rest a 200-year-old mystery. From: Grab Guest clearly doesn't understand the difference between a search engine which indexes previously-known information, and NEW information just arrived which hasn't made it into the various publications yet... Graham. |
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18 Jan 07 - 11:11 AM (#1940579) Subject: RE: BS: Putting to rest a 200-year-old mystery. From: Les from Hull I'm just glad that he's still dead. |
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18 Jan 07 - 11:18 AM (#1940582) Subject: RE: BS: Putting to rest a 200-year-old mystery. From: MMario The main problem is that the corpse they *thought* was Napoleon wasn't actually him. The actual body was processed in the prototype of Dunderbeck's machine and ground to flour for making petit-fours. This is the origin of the children's nursery rhyme "Fee Fie Foe Fum" - in the original "English man " was "Corsican" |
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18 Jan 07 - 12:30 PM (#1940656) Subject: RE: BS: Putting to rest a 200-year-old mystery. From: GUEST Didn't Napoleon escape from Ste Helene, his place being taken by a French sailor with a remarkable resemblance (once dressed up, washed, &c) to Le Petit Caporal, and once arrived in Paris he was sheltered by the family of a former colonel who by then was running a fruit and vegetable shop? He ended up marrying one of the family, having discovered the charms of a simple, retired existence. More certainly, his sojourn on Elba was not an "exile"; he had abdicated, and chose Elba as his place of retreat - together with a thousand men of La Garde Imperiale - during the proceedings of the Congress of Vienna. For real conspiracy theorists, there's the idea that the some among the Coalition actually wished him to escape.... |