Napoleon on St. Helena

James Merendino SLC Punk! Sony Pictures Classics, 1998. [trailer]

Heroin Bob: You know that shit you guys do? You're fucking yourselves up, man. Fucking acid, it never leaves your body. It's in your fucking spinal cord forever. Let me tell you something about the nature of chemicals, man. You know that dude, Napoleon? Yeah. He was banished to an island when the French got sick of him. That's right! He supposedly died of stomach problems, right? Wrong! He was actually poisoned over a long period of time; murdered by arsenic, a preservative. And you know cow?

Stevo: No idea.

Heroin Bob: His hair.

Stevo: His hair.

Heroin Bob: His fucking hair! It was arsenic. You could tell how long he was being poisoned by following the traces of poison up his hair. Dude, dude, dude, if you do enough hits of it, you're dead!

Stevo: Really makes you think, doesn't it, Bob?

Heroin Bob: Th-think what?

Stevo: That chemistry's the wrong fucking major for a guy like you! It's the wrong major, Bob!

Heroin Bob: Well, you should lay off the acid anyways, man! [.youtube].

ACD Leslie and H. Smith. ''Napoleon Bonaparte's exposure to arsenic during 1816.'' Arch. Toxicol. 41, 163–167 (1978). ([springer.com])

''Analysis of hair from Napoleon showed that he was exposed to considerable amounts of arsenic during 1816. The distribution pattern of the arsenic in the hair is similar to that found after the daily ingestion of excessive amounts of arsenic." This study is based on an 1816 sample. This earlier sample predates the 1819 wallpaper in the study which contained arsenic.

Pascal Kintz, Jean-Pierre Goulle, Paul Fornes, Bertrand Ludes. ''A new series of hair analyses from Napoleon confirms chronic exposure to arsenic.'' J Anal Toxicol. Nov-Dec 2002;26(8):584-5. ([researchgate.net])

This study determined that Napoleon did have "chronic exposure to arsenic." They give a short history from his death in 1821, the "debate on the manner of death," and "since 1964" the revelation that Napoleon's hair "demonstrated high arsenic content." The ensuing "great controversy about the final conclusions involving a criminal poising." These 1964 findings were reviewed in 1999 and confirmed. In a five hair study done in 2002, some possible causes of the high arsenic levels are defined: coal smoke, cosmetics, wall paper contamination and oral administration through water supply. The (2002) study rules out coal smoke because only Napoleon suffered on the island. Cosmetics because Napoleon's biography ruled them out and post-mortem cosmetics were applied after this hair sample. Wall paper contamination because the hair sample from 1816 had arsenic while the offending wallpaper was changed in 1819. The water supply was also tested and found to have a low arsenic concentration. This study also ruled out Napoleon's use of arsenic as a pharmaceutical through the historical record. The study's [hedged] conclusion: "it seems acceptable that arsenic poisoning occurred by oral administration."

hominidmedia resources:
my beautiful, milky cow. magical moscow no longer exists.
such is war, my emperor.
*moo*
do you have any more wall paper from Longwood cabin?
are you nuts? of course.