The Death of Napoleon: the Last Campaign

By J Thomas Hindmarsh

Napoleon Bonaparte died on May 5th, 1821 on the island of St Helena from complications of stomach cancer proven by autopsy. However, when analyses of trace elements on single strands of hair became available in the 1960s, it was found that some samples of his hair contained increased levels of arsenic which lead to claims that he had been deliberately poisoned. This book written by an expert toxiciologist and a surgeon/Napoleon scholar examines the proof for the diagnosis of stomach cancer. Also it reviews the evidence for arsenic poisoning and denounces this as a myth, based upon the absence of all the specific features and many of the cardinal non-specific features of arsenic poisoning, thus confirming that the Emperor died from stomach cancer.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Dec 14, 2007
• ISBN: 9781465315083

J Thomas Hindmarsh

Dr J Thomas Hindmarsh has an MD from the University of Sheffield, England and is a Fellow of the Royal College of Pathologists of Britain and of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada. He recently retired as Professor of Pathology and Medical Biochemistry at the University of Ottawa. Dr Hindmarsh is an international authority on arsenic toxicology, has published many papers and several book chapters on the topic, has consulted for the US EPA and other government agencies, and is a member of a UNESCO expert panel. In 1994 he was invited by the Napoleonic Society of America to help resolve the controversy about whether Napoleon was poisoned with arsenic and this book is the consequence of his research. Dr Philip F Corso recently retired as Chief of Plastic Surgery at The Norwalk Hospital, Norwalk, Connecticut. He graduated cum laude from Yale University and Tufts University School of Medicine. He is a Fellow of the American College of Plastic Surgeons and an Assistant Clinical Professor of Surgery at Yale University. He has pursued a lifelong interest in the history of Napoleon and has authored several papers on the Emperor and the Empress Josephine. He has an extensive collection of Napoleon memorabilia and is a founding member of the Napoleonic Society of America.

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Copyright © 2007 by J Thomas Hindmarsh & Philip F Corso.

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Contents

Introduction

Chapter One

Death On Saint Helena

Chapter Two

The Last Illness

Chapter Three

Cancer Of The Stomach

Chapter Four

Arsenic Poisoning

Chapter Five

The Demise Of The Arsenic Myth

Chapter Six

Other Theories

Chapter Seven

Conclusions

Acknowledgements

Bibliography and References

"For God’s sake let us sit upon the ground, and tell sad stories

of the death of kings"

Shakespeare, King Richard II, Prologue.

Introduction

Napoleon Bonaparte died on May 5th,1821, on the Island of St. Helena from complications of a stomach cancer proven by autopsy. However, when analyses of trace elements on single strands of hair became available in the 1960s, it was found that some samples of his hair contained increased levels of arsenic, which led to claims that he had been deliberately poisoned. This book, written by an expert toxicologist and a surgeon/Napoleon scholar examines the proof for the diagnosis of stomach cancer. Also, it reviews the evidence for arsenic poisoning and denounces this as a myth based upon the absence of all of the specific features and many of the cardinal non-specific features of arsenic poisoning.

Thomas Carlyle in his History of the French Revolution said, History is a distillation of rumour. Surely we can and must strive for greater accuracy with important world events: we hope that by diligent research we have achieved this in the present volume.

Chapter One

Death On Saint Helena

He who lives more lives than one, more deaths than one must die, Oscar Wilde, Ballad of Reading Gaol.

The Death:

Napoleon Bonaparte died at 5.49 on the afternoon of Saturday, 5th of May, 1821, on the Island of St. Helena, exiled here by the British since his defeat at the disastrous battle of Waterloo in 1815. He was only fifty-one years old.

St. Helena is a rarely visited rocky outcrop in the South Atlantic, ten miles long and six wide, 1000 miles south of the equator, 1200 miles from the African shore and 2000 miles from the nearest point in South America. It was discovered by the Portuguese explorer, Joao da Nova Castella on May 21, 1502, the feast day of St. Helen-the mother of the first Christian Roman Emperor, Constantine the Great-and named for her. The Portuguese kept its existence a secret until it was rediscovered by Captain Thomas Cavendish, the third circumnavigator of the world in 1588. Its current population is only around 4000 souls; but in the 19th century before the construction of the Suez Canal, it was a major stop-over for ships plying between Britain, India, and the Far East, and housed a large military garrison.

The Emperor’s death was somewhat sudden following a rapidly progressing illness that had started in earnest the previous autumn and had culminated in severe vomiting, hiccups, and loss of consciousness a few days before his death.

The Autopsy:

An autopsy was performed at 2P.M. the following day [Sunday] in the drawing room of Longwood House, the Emperor’s island home, and was conducted at Napoleon’s request by his personal physician, Dr Francesco Antommarchi. Seven other physicians were present: Archibald Arnott, Surgeon to the 20th Regiment, who had attended Napoleon during his last few weeks; Thomas Shortt, Chief Medical Officer on the Island; Charles Mitchell, Surgeon of His Majesty’s Ship Vigo; Francis Burton, Surgeon to the 66th Regiment; Matthew Livingstone, Surgeon; and Assistant Surgeons Walter Henry (who kept notes of the autopsy) and George Henry Rutledge. Also present were the Emperor’s retinue: Count Montholon, General Bertrand, the priest Abbe’ Vignali, the valets Marchand and St Denis, and the butler Pierron. The British were represented by Sir Thomas Reade (representing the Island’s Governor, Sir Hudson Lowe); Major Charles Hamilton; and Captain William Crokat (Duty Officer at Longwood House).

At least five separate autopsy reports exist: two by Antommarchi; the official version in draft and final form signed by the British physicians; and also one written two years later by Henry from his notes. A portion of the draft version of the official report is shown in Fig 1.1 and displays the alterations made at the insistence of Sir Hudson Lowe: the words and the liver was perhaps a little larger than is natural have been scored out and a footnote by the report’s authors states that the words obliterated were suppressed by the order of Sir Hudson Lowe. The offending words don’t appear in the final version [Fig1.2]; we shall later see his reason for this change. Apparently government interference in medical affairs is not a new phenomenon.

A portion of Walter Henry’s report appears in Fig1.3.

The autopsy reports will be described in detail as they clearly provide the definitive cause of death.

Francesco Antommarchi, an anatomist-pathologist, had studied under the great anatomist Guiseppe Mascagni at the University of Sienna and had also trained at Pisa and Florence, then as now major centres of medical learning. He was chosen to be Napoleon’s personal physician by the Bonaparte family on the advice of Cardinal Fesch [his Corsican uncle], and the Emperor’s mother Madame Mere. He had served his temperamental patient since September 1819. Antommarchi’s first autopsy report, to which we have added explanations in brackets, was written at the time and is reproduced from Louis Marchand’s memoirs and Sten Forshufvud’s detailed book, Who Killed Napoleon? It reads as follows:

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Fig 1.1 Draft of Autopsy Report Showing Alteration Made at the Order of Sir Hudson Lowe

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Fig 1.2 Official Autopsy Report

I, the undersigned, Francois Antommarchi, Surgeon in Ordinary to the Emperor Napoleon, in execution of instructions received by me from the Comtes de Montholon and Bertrand proceeded to perform an autopsy on the body of the Emperor Napoleon. Having opened the cavities of the thorax and stomach I observed as follows:

•   The convex exterior surface of the left lung adhering in several places to the adjoining costal pleura [wall of the chest cavity].

•   About 3 ounces of lymphatic humour in the sac of the left costal pleura.

•   The lungs in normal condition.

•   The heart in good condition enveloped in its pericardium and covered with a small amount of fat.

•   The stomach, intestines, liver, spleen, and the greater omentum [an apron of fatty and fibrous tissue that covers the front of the abdominal contents] in their natural positions.

•   The superior convex surface of the left lobe of the liver adhering to the adjoining part of the concave surface of the diaphragm. The posterior concave surface of the said lobe strongly adhering to the anterior surface and to the lesser curvature [upper border] of the stomach as well as to the lesser omentum [a fibrous fatty film of tissue that attaches the upper border of the stomach to the diaphragm and liver].

•   After I had, both with the scalpel and with my finger, carefully parted the said adhesion, I observed that the adhesion on the concave surface of the left lobe of the liver covered a hole of about three lignes in diameter situated in the anterior surface of the stomach near its right extremity [a ligne is an old-fashioned unit of measurement equal to about 1/12 of an inch].

•   After I had opened the stomach behind the greater curvature [lower border] I observed it was partly filled with a blackish liquid substance of pungent and disagreeable odour.

•   Having removed the said liquid I observed a very extensive cancerous ulcer occupying, especially, the upper part of the internal surface of the stomach and extending from the cardiac orifice [upper entry to the stomach] to about an inch from the pylorus (lower exit from the stomach).

•   On the edge of this ulcer towards the pylorus I recognised the above-mentioned hole [see above] produced by the ulcerous corrosion of the coat of the stomach.

•   The ulcerated surface of the stomach was considerably swollen and indurated [hardened].

•   Between the ulcer and the pylorus and near the ulcer I observed a distension and a scirrhous [the Greek word for hard is skirrhos—skirrhous was commonly used to describe cancer in the 18th and 19th century-see Dorland’s Illustrated Medical Dictionary, 21st ed] hardness of a breadth of several lignes which formed a circular mass at the right extremity of the stomach.

•   The liver was congested and of more than normal size.

•   All the intestines were in good condition but filled with air.

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