RICERCA ITALIANA     

27 Febbraio 2008

INFN’s researchers uncover truth to Napoleon’s death

Ricercatori dell’Infn fanno luce sulla morte di Napoleone e smontano la tesi che per secoli aveva attribuito la causa del decesso all’avvelenamento.L’esame dei capelli di Napoleone, appartenenti a vari periodi della sua vita, ha rilevato la presenza di arsenico sia all’epoca della sua giovinezza sia nelle ultime fasi della sua esistenza.

Thanks to a team of Italian researchers at the National Institute of Nuclear Physics (INFN) in Milano-Bicocca and Pavia, a longstanding theory on Napoleon Bonaparte’s death has been put to rest.

For a number of years, it was thought my many historians, scientists and writers that Napoleon was poisoned by guards during his imprisonment in Saint Helena following the Battle of Waterloo.

However after examining the hair of the Emperor from different periods of his life, INFN researchers proved that he did not die of arsenic poisoning. The hair samples revealed that in the final period of his life there were no significant increases in the levels of poison arsenic, when compared to the hair samples throughout other periods of his life.

Therefore rather than a case of poisoning, researchers and toxicologists who participated in study found that Napoleon’s death was the result of the constant absorption of arsenic.

The hair samples were analysed through means of a technique known as “neutron activation”, which has two advantages: it does not destroy the sample and it provides extremely precise results even on samples with an extremely small mass, such as human hair samples.

Samples were taken from when he was a boy in Corsica, during his exile on the Island of Elba, the day of his death, and on the day after his death. Samples were also taken from the King of Rome (Napoleon’s son) and samples from the Empress Josephine. In addition, ten hair samples from people today were examined for comparison purposes.

The findings showed that the level of arsenic in all of the hair samples from 200 years ago is 100 times greater than the average level detected in samples from persons living today. It can be concluded that at the beginning of the 19th century, people evidently ingested arsenic that was present in the environment in quantities that are currently considered lethal.

Results of the research will be published in the journal “Il Nuovo Saggiatore”.

The Italian Research Portal conducted an interview with Ettore Fiorini of the INFN Milano- Bicocca and one of the researchers who took part in the study.

How did the idea come about to conduct a study on Napoleon’s death?

For many years we carried out a similar research activity with the Pavia group on research related to fundamental physics, this was performed at the Gran Sasso Laboratory. As a side note to our research, we discovered that we could also determine precise measurements of arsenic present in human hair, even in minute amounts, so we decided to apply this technique and examine the hair strands of historic individuals.


How were the hair samples collected? Who had them previously?

We decided to solely analyse hair strands of certificated historical origin. They were provided by the Museo Napoleonico of Rome, the Museo Glauco Lombardi of Parma and the Malmaison of Paris Museum.

What was the most surprising result from the study?

The fact that all the hair strands of historic origin (not only those of Napoleon) had a similar Arsenic contamination much larger than the contamination of individuals today.

The study indicates that Napoleon had a great amount of arsenic present in his system, and that it was common in that period of time. What does this stem from? Why do you think there was more arsenic present in the environment in the past?

Professor Angela Santagostino a toxicologist in our University says that arsenic was of large use in those years, it was found in paints, in medicines etc.

What will occur with the results of the study? How can they be applied to future studies?

They can definitely be applied to future studies. This research is a part of a relatively recent science: archaeometry