НАПОЛЕОН: ИЗГНАНИЕ И СМЪРТ НА О. СВЕТА ЕЛЕНА
NAPOLEON: EXILE AND DEATH ON ST. HELENA

Summary/Abstract: The French emperor Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821) died on island St Helena in Atlantic Ocean. After the battle of Waterloo (1815) he abdicated and lived in exile in Longood House, the old residence of the British governor of the island. For a long time he was in bitterest conflict with Sir Hudson Lowe, a British general and governor of St. Helena. His health deteriorated progressively. Napoleon began to suffer from right abdominal pain, episodes of fever, vomiting and, at the end, from hematemesis and melena. He expressed progressive weakness and weight loss (about 10 kg). Napoleon died on the 5th of May, 1821. Dr. Francesco Antomarchi performed the autopsy in the presence of seven British medical doctors. The main pathological finding during the necropsy was a mass of cancerous disease advancing to cancerous ulcer. The ulcer was covered by adhesions located between the stomach and the liver. The main risk factors for gastric cancer are chronic gastritis caused by Helicobacter pylori and genetic susceptibility. It is proposed a H. pylori infection during his life as an important risk factor. In addition, the diet of military campains, rich in salt-preserved foods, thoroughly roasted meats, and few fresh fruits and vegetables, is likely to have played a synergistic role in the pathogenesis of Napoleon’s cancer. In 1961, an elevated arsenic (As) concentration in his hair taken after the death suggested arsenic poisoning. In 2008, this hypotheses was finally dismissed due to a study showing elevated As content in the hair of Napoleon’s son (Napoleon II) and Joséphine, his wife; the both were never on St. Helena. Today the Napoleon’s remains are located in Les Invalides, Paris.

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