Eager docs led to Boney146;s death

French conspiracy theorists suspect Napoleon was slowly poisoned, either by the British or by his confidante, Count Charles de Montholon, who was supposedly in the pay of French royalists opposed to the Emperor8217;s return. The scientific evidence for this is a chemical analysis, conducted in 2001 on a lock of Napoleon8217;s hair, that found huge traces of arsenic.

But, according to next Saturday8217;s issue of the British weekly New Scientist, all are wrong. 8216;8216;Medical misadventure8217;8217; by Napoleon8217;s over-enthusiastic doctors was to blame, according to forensic pathologist Steven Karch at the San Francisco medical examiner8217;s department.

Every day, doctors gave Napoleon an enema to relieve his symptoms of a sick stomach and intestinal cramping. This, combined with regular doses of a chemical called antimony potassium tartrate to induce vomiting, would have left him short of potassium.

This can lead to a lethal heart condition known as Torsades de Pointes, in which the blood flow to the brain is disrupted by irregular heartbeats. Karch8217;s theory is that any arsenic in Napoleon8217;s body would have made him more vulnerable to torsades. 8212;PTI