The fatal illness of Napoleon : a paper read before the Historical Section of the International Congress of Medicine, London (August 8, 1913) / by Arnold Chaplin.

  • Chaplin, Arnold.
Date:
1913
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Licence: In copyright

Credit: The fatal illness of Napoleon : a paper read before the Historical Section of the International Congress of Medicine, London (August 8, 1913) / by Arnold Chaplin. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    Regiment, was called in, and remained in attend- ance until the end. At first he was sceptical as to the serious nature of the illness, and was inclined to the opinion that most of the symptoms pointed to hypochondriasis, but towards the end he saw reason to alter his view, and when, on April 27, the matters thrown off the stomach were seen to be of “ coffee ground ” consistence, he no longer doubted that serious disease of the stomach was at the root of Napoleon’s indis- position. It may be stated, therefore, that, soon after the middle of September 1820, the illness of the Emperor took on a new phase, and that, from that time, the symptoms pointed to the onset of grave gastric disease, very different from the indisposition from which he had suffered for the previous three years. This change in the symp- toms may, I think, be fairly attributed to the beginning of the cancer of the stomach which eventually caused his death. It was one of those rapid-growing carcinomas which, when they attack the body of the stomach, generally result in a fatal termination in six or eight months. The post-mortem examination of Napoleon now claims your investigation. This took place on May 6, in the drawing-room at Longwood, a little after 2 p.m. It was not a prolonged examination, for Sir Thomas Reade, who repre-