Natural justice for Napoleon as scientists debunk poisonous tale

Just when many eminent historians were coming around to the view that Napoleon was poisoned on St Helena, a team of French scientists has concluded he died a natural death.

The French magazine Science et Vie (Science and Life) devoted part of its November issue to what it calls a "40-year-old detective story". It asked three top French scientists to examine evidence that Napoleon died of arsenic poisoning, as concluded by laboratories in France and the United States two years ago.

The three scientists agreed a number of his locks of hair were steeped in arsenic. But they pointed out that this is equally true of hair cut from Napoleon's head in 1805 – when he was the height of his health.

They believe the hair was tainted with arsenic after his death. "The most likely explanation is through conservation agents," they said. Arsenic was sometime used to preserve hair in the 19th century.

The inquiry concludes that Napoleon died from stomach cancer, as the doctors who examined him stated at the time.

This is unlikely to be the end of the affair. The controversy began soon after the publication in 1955 of the diaries of Napoleon's valet, Louis Marchand. In 1960, a Swedish dentist, Sten Forshufvud, published a book in which he said that the valet's account of the emperor's final years was a clear description of a slow murder.

There are 31 known symptoms of arsenic poisoning. Napoleon, in the last four years of his life, suffered from 28 of them, Mr Forshufvud said.

His theory, ridiculed at the time, become respectable in recent years following tests in pathological laboratories showing large traces of arsenic in Napoleon's hair.