Saint Helena Island. Date of Napoleon’s death. An analysis conducted in 1961 by Sten Forshufvud, a Swedish toxicologist, on Napoleon’s hair samples discovered elevated levels of arsenic. This supported the hypothesis that the emperor had been poisoned. A sample of the gold and green wallpaper from Napoleon’s rooms, made by Scheele at the time from copper arsenide or copper acetoarsenate, was then found and analyzed in 1982. The article published in Nature in 1982 confirmed the presence of arsenic in the wallpaper, which would provide the reason for the high levels of arsenic in the hair. Subsequent analyses (2008) found similar levels of arsenic in the hair of his wife Josephine and other family members: arsenic was found everywhere at the time…
