Day with a Difference - June 29, 2006

Today's Inspirational Quote:

"Do not wait; the time will never be 'just right.' Start where you stand, and work with whatever tools you may have at your command, and better tools will be found as you go along." - Napoleon Hill

So What Killed Napoleon?

The causes given for the demise of Napoleon range from the fantastical to the plausible. Some authorities have accepted the verdict of stomach cancer. As recently as March, 2003, national newspapers printed an article of a study confirming that cancer was the cause of death. Others have not agreed.

In many respects, no historical person's medical record has been so microscopically examined. Many of the maladies supposedly suffered by Napoleon have little to do with his cause of death, but these speculations illustrate the bizarre accumulation of medically related issues. It has been suggested that Napoleon suffered from attacks of hemorrhoids so severe that they actually influenced the result at the Battle of Waterloo.

In addition to scabies, the chronic skin disease neurodermititis (explaining Napoleon's penchant for prolonged baths), rages, weeping fits, migraines and dysuria, a medical journal article in 1966 by Ayer proposed that all of these symptoms were the result of the parasitic disease schistosomiasis, (acquired during the Egyptian campaign of 1798). To round out these speculations, Napoleon's hormones have been implicated as having important roles in his personality. These include suggestions of hyperthyroidism, Foehlich's Syndrome (pituitary deficiency), hypogonadism, Klinefelter's Syndrome (an extra X chromosome) and, as a bonus, undefined latent homosexuality.

Even the much examined Adolf Hitler, with his condition of hemicryptorchidism, never rivaled the encyclopedic medical record of Napoleon. Then, of course, there are the poisoning theories.

Expand your knowledge base

Q. Who was the first to devise food canning which resulted in the beginning of the canned food industry of today?
A. Because Napoleon believed that armies marched on their stomachs, he offered a prize in 1795 for a practical way
of preserving food. The prize was won by a French inventor, Nicholas Appert. What he devised was canning. It
was the beginning of the canned food industry of today.

Have a memorable day!
Priya