Napoleonic Trivia #57 (1 Viewer)

[Grognard]

It is well known that some people think that Napoléon was deliberately poisoned when he died in St Helena. In fact the analysis in the 60's of his hair revealed an abnormal level of arsenic which might confirm this theory. However in the 80's a new lead/development and new technologies brought to light a plausible new source for the arsenic in his body other than the poison plot.

So what could have explained so much build up of arsenic in Napoleon’s organism during his stay in Longwood house?

If you like Sherlock Holmes and Hercule Poirot you will like that one!:wink2:

 

[Napoleon1er]

Copper arsenite in the fabric/wall paper pigment known as Scheele's Green.
-Sandor:wink2::salute::

 

[Grognard]

Copper arsenite in the fabric/wall paper pigment known as Scheele's Green.
-Sandor:wink2::salute::

Correct answer Sandor! Napoleon's house on St Helena contained a toxic green wall paper!

Scheele's Green was a coloring pigment that had been used in fabrics and wallpapers from around 1770. It was named after the Swedish chemist Scheele who invented it. The pigment was easy to make, and was a bright green color. But Scheele's Green was copper arsenite. And under certain circumstances it could be deadly. The Italian biochemist Gosio discovered that if wallpaper containing Scheele's Green became damp, and then became moldy (this was in the days of animal glues) the mold could carry out a neat chemical trick to get rid of the copper arsenite. It converted it to a vapor form of arsenic. This vapor was very poisonous indeed. Breathe in enough of the vapor, and you would go down with a nasty case of arsenic poisoning.

The above paragraphs are some excerpts of the following article/investigation on this fascinating topic: http://www.grand-illusions.com/articles/napoleons_wallpaper/

As indicated in that article, the arsenic vapors alone could not have killed Napoléon but combined with his stomach cancer likely accelerated his death...