Mystery of Napoleon essays

Mystery of Napoleon essays It is unacceptable that a man compared only to the greatest of leaders could die of stomach cancer on a bare, unpopulated island and not die at Waterloo or in Russia but die alone, captive in a dark house in a forgotten exile of more than a decade and a half. It is not a mystery that he died, it is how. It is hard to believe that a man of such achievement and genius could just wither away so unexpectedly. Such men do not just die or wither away. As of March, 2003, many writers and researchers confirmed that Napoleon must have died of stomach cancer. This is contradicted by books written by witnesses of Napoleons exile saying that Napoleon took a special medication labeled Vin dEmpereur. This is believed to be the arsenic poison that is developed into most of these theories. The arsenic poison theory would make sense because the guards were hired to guard the house Napoleon stayed in for however long he lives. Who knows it could have been many more years and the guards would not want to wait around until he actually dies of age. It would make great sense that the guard would want to get rid of him so they could leave and go home. Another piece of evidence showing arsenic poisoning is that when Napoleons body was uncovered for autopsy, it was almost perfectly preserved. This is a major characteristic of a lot of poisons. When dentist, Sten Forshufvud, looked over his body he knew it had to be some sort of poison. They didnt have embalming fluid at that time to help in the decaying process so it is hard to believe that it could just be magically preserved. Forshufvud would later take hair samples of Napoleons to test the levels of arsenic. When tested, they were shown that he had higher than normal levels of arsenic. It also showed that he was given little amounts at a time to try and simulate a fading, weake...