A study of Napoleon Bonaparte's trousers could put an end to the theory that the French Emperor was poisoned.
Napoleon died aged 52 on St Helena in the south Atlantic where he had been banished after his defeat at Waterloo.
His post mortem showed he died of stomach cancer, but it has been suggested arsenic poisoning or over-zealous treatment was to blame.
Now Swiss researchers say his trousers show he lost weight prior his death, confirming he had cancer.
The research, by scientists from the anatomical pathology department of the University Hospital in Basel and the Institute of Medical History at the University of Zurich, looked at 12 pairs of Napoleon's trousers.
Four were from before his exile and eight were pairs he wore during the six years he spent in exile on St Helena, including the pair he wore while dying.
The researchers also collated information from post mortems on the weights of patients who had died of stomach cancer.
They then measured the waists of healthy people to work out the correlation between that measurement and their actual weight.
This information was then used to calculate Napoleon's weight in the months leading up to his death.
The largest pair of trousers Napoleon wore had a waist measurement of 110cm; those he wore just before his death measured 98cm.
This, they say, shows he lost between 11 and 15kg over the last six months of his life.
The Swiss team say the presence of arsenic in Napoleon's hair, the source of the poisoning theory, was linked to this enthusiasm for wine.
At the time, it was the custom of winemakers to dry their casks and basins with arsenic.
新发现：拿破仑的裤子揭示他的死因
一项对拿破仑-波拿巴穿过的裤子的研究也许可以推翻这位法兰西皇帝中毒身亡的理论。
滑铁卢战役惨败后，拿破仑被流放到大西洋南部的圣赫勒拿岛上，后逝世于此，享年52岁。尸检报告显示他死于胃癌，但也有迹象表明他的死因可能是砷中毒，也可能是过度治疗。
最近，有瑞士研究者指出，从拿破仑穿过的裤子可以看出他死前体重逐渐下降，这证实他死于癌症。瑞士巴塞尔大学医院解剖病理学院和苏黎世大学医学史研究所的科学家们联手进行了这项研究，他们共分析了12条拿破仑生前穿过的裤子。
其中有四条裤子是他被流放之前穿过的，另外八条是他在流放圣赫勒拿岛的六年间穿的，包括他临死前穿的那一条。
研究者们还比较了从死于胃癌的病人的尸检报告中获取的体重下降的信息。
然后他们测量了健康人的腰围，并由此推出腰围和实际体重之间的关系随后，这些信息被用来推测拿破仑死前几个月的体重情况。
拿破仑生前穿过的最大的一条裤子的腰围是110厘米，而他逝世前穿过的裤子的腰围只有98厘米。研究者们宣称，这表明在拿破仑生命的最后六个月里，他的体重减轻了11到15公斤。
瑞士研究小组表示，推测拿破仑死于中毒的理论来源是他头发中所含的砷，但这也可能与他嗜酒的习惯有关。当时的酿酒者通常用砷来干燥盛酒的盆和桶。 |
发表于 2006-12-7 18:57:28
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