Poisoning controversies Napoleon Bonaparte

Over the years, arsenic has been blamed for the illnesses and deaths of several politicians and other celebrities. In the case of Charles Francis Hall, suspicions of arsenic poisoning by accident or murder proved true. The arsenic poisoning of US Ambassador Clare Boothe Luce was unintentional and not an attempted assassination as first suspected. In contrast, the exhumation and autopsy of US President Zachary Taylor found no evidence of arsenic poisoning. 

Perhaps, the most controversial death possibly involving arsenic is that of Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821), the French Emperor. Despite extensive studies over the past several decades, controversies still continue over Napoleon s death and whether accidental poisoning or assassination with arsenic was involved. Most historians have traditionally argued that Napoleon Bonaparte died of gastric ( stomach ) cancer in exile on the island of St. Helena in 1821. The autopsy report of Napoleon s death was not questioned for many years because Napoleon s father probably died of the disease (Lugli et al., 2007), 52. Since 1961, however, analyses of Napoleon s hair at the time of his death found high concentrations of arsenic in some, but not all, of the samples. Some experts suspected that Napoleon died of arsenic 

---