How did Napoleon die?
Dictionaries in many countries have this annotation: Napoleon I (176-1821) died on the island of St. Helena. How did this popular figure in Europe in the 19th century die? Some people say that he was poisoned to death while imprisoned on the island of St. Helena in the Atlantic Ocean; some say that he may have died from cancer inherited in his family, because his father died of cancer at the age of 40; some say that he died of cancer. , he contracted a tropical disease while attacking Egypt and Syria, and later died of the disease. There are different opinions, but no one has come up with reliable evidence, and it has become a "mystery" left in history!
150 years after Napoleon's death, a strange news attracted great attention from the scientific community. Someone proved that Napoleon was poisoned based on the test of a hair.
The thing is this: Because Napoleon was once a powerful monarch in the world, his ministers decided to preserve his remains after his death. However, there was no good way to preserve the body at that time, and there was no photography (photography was only invented in 1835). After discussion, the ministers decided to use a plaster molding method, that is, first shave Napoleon's hair and then mold it. His hairstyle is then copied for the full body image. At that time, out of a pious mood, a loyal guard secretly collected a lock of Napoleon's hair as a souvenir and passed it down to future generations. Admittedly, the guard never even dreamed that his move would It provides reliable evidence to explain the mystery of Napoleon's death 150 years later.
In recent years, someone has found Napoleon's hair. What is the difference between Napoleon's dead hair and the hair of normal people who died of illness? The test result is that Napoleon's hair obviously contains more arsenic.
According to modern analysis technology, the content of various components in every tiny section of a hair can be accurately determined. An obvious feature: the closer he died, the more arsenic his hair contained. It is inferred that Napoleon may have been poisoned by arsenic (arsenic trioxide).
It turns out that the trace elements in his hair are related to that of arsenic. The components in human blood are relatively similar, and they can accurately reflect the internal metabolism of the human body. The various components of blood come from the surrounding environment and the food produced in this environment. Geochemist Hamilton once tested the blood of British people. He found that this curve was surprisingly similar to the average content curve of corresponding trace elements in the surrounding geological environment. : The hair lead content of urban residents is much higher than that of rural residents; the hair arsenic content of residents near busy traffic lines and workers engaged in lead operations is higher; the hair arsenic content of residents near smelters or in certain naturally rich arsenic areas , the arsenic content in their hair is also much higher than that of normal people; the mercury content in the hair of fishermen who live at the seaside and often eat fish and shrimp is often several times higher than that of mainlanders. Chinese scientists are investigating Keshan disease (an endemic disease). When visiting the heart disease ward, it was found that trace elements such as selenium and aluminum were generally lacking in the environment of the ward, and the selenium and aluminum content in the hair of all Keshan patients were also very low.
Plenty of facts. Proof: The composition of blood is indeed an objective reflection of the environment, and hair is like an automatic recording tape, recording the impact of the environment on the human body every day, truly and sensitively pointing out the changes in the environment and the degree of pollution. Therefore, it is appropriate for Chinese traditional medicine to call human hair "blood residue". Based on this reason, it seems to be more reliable that Napoleon died of poisoning.
However, the medical community does not completely agree with this view. Because arsenic is a potent poison, it can cause acute death. In the short period from poisoning to death, arsenic will not immediately enter the longer hair. However, based on the analysis of the current information, Napoleon did not die. Man-made poisoning, and he probably died of endemic arsenic poisoning, or at least he had suffered from endemic chronic arsenic poisoning, because no one can deny that the food and domestic water on St. Helena Island contain high levels of arsenic poisoning. arsenic.
Leaving aside the real cause of Napoleon's death, this point has attracted great attention from the scientific community. The relationship between hair and the environment is worthy of further study and utilization.
To evaluate the quality of an environment, the most fundamental thing is to look at its impact on human health. Therefore, it is very necessary to find something that can sensitively and reliably reflect the relationship between changes in environmental quality and human health. The average person has 20,000 to 30,000 hairs, and each hair grows 0.4 millimeters per day. There are 20,000 cells and dozens of trace elements in 1 millimeter of hair. Therefore, there is nothing better than using hair to monitor the environment.
In recent years, scientists have continued to make new discoveries in hair research. At present, what a hair can tell people is far more than just a little information about environmental monitoring. It can show much more things than people imagine.
According to reports, diabetes and cardiovascular disease can be diagnosed based on the content of trace element chromium in hair; high blood pressure can be diagnosed based on the content of cadmium and lead, and even whether a person can live long or not; comprehensive analysis The content of 14 trace elements in hair can determine whether a child is smart and the degree of intellectual development, with an accuracy of up to 98%. In addition, through hair analysis, the four types of mental disorders of schizophrenia can be distinguished, and it can be determined whether a person has taken drugs and when. Because of this, hair analysis has been gradually used by police officers, and it is not uncommon for cases to be solved with just one shot. Therefore, it can be predicted that trichodiagnosis will soon develop into an independent new discipline.
It is true that, whether it is using hair to monitor the environment or diagnose endemic diseases, pollution diseases and other various diseases, so far, everything has not been achieved. One of the main obstacles is that we haven't yet figured out what constitutes "normal hair." Recently, the International Atomic Energy Agency is collecting analysis data of 40 elements in hair from specialized laboratories in 13 countries in order to obtain preliminary answers to "normal hair." It is conceivable that once this standard hair baseline is drawn, hair diagnosis can make miraculous contributions to mankind. By then, we may be surprised to find that the questions that a single hair can answer are even comparable to those of an electronic computer.