Historian Wants Napoleon DNA Test (2002)

People watch the marble grave of French emperor Napoleon Bonaparte, under the Invalides Dome in Paris, France Friday Aug.16, 2002. For decades, the fate of Napoleon Bonaparte has been debated and studied. Now a French historian is locked in an uphill battle against the government over a DNA test he says could end the doubts. Historian Bruno Roy-Henry believes British authorities may have removed Napoleon's remains before his coffin was returned to France in 1840 - and that the body under the gilded dome of Les Invalides is that of another man.

But France's Defense Ministry has refused, at least for now, to allow a DNA test, which Roy-Henry contends would put an end to all questions about the identity of the body in Napoleon's Tomb.

"I have a feeling that the French authorities are very perturbed," Roy-Henry said.

Roy-Henry points to a series of anomalies surrounding Napoleon's death on the South Atlantic island of St. Helena in 1821, and the transfer of his remains to Paris 19 years later.

He cites the disappearance of the emperor's silver spurs. These were fastened to Napoleon's boots when he was buried in St. Helena, but missing when the coffin was opened in Paris in 1840. Witnesses to the opening of the coffin said the body appeared well-preserved - not in a state of decomposition that one would expect from a body buried 19 years earlier.

To prove his theory, Roy-Henry wrote to France's Defense Ministry last month to request a DNA test on a strand of Napoleon's hair.

Doctors took the strand from the body currently lying in Les Invalides just before the coffin arrived in Paris. It was later given to Bonaparte's nephew, Emperor Napoleon III, before being put in a permanent exhibit at the Army Museum in Paris in 1936.

"The simplest way to put an end to all of this is a DNA test, but it has been refused," said Roy-Henry. "So I have deduced that there is something to hide."

The ministry also told Roy-Henry he must seek the agreement of Napoleon's descendants, some of whom live in Italy and the emperor's birthplace of Corsica, to provide a DNA sample before the case can proceed further.

But what would have been the British motive for removing the body? The circumstances surrounding Napoleon's death are a subject of fierce debate.

While textbooks say Napoleon died of stomach cancer, claims that the British poisoned him with arsenic are rife. If that were the case, they would have tried to hide the crime, Roy-Henry argued.

He concedes that there is no proof for any of those theories. But a DNA test could at least settle the question about who lies in the tomb.

　

几十年来，拿破仑的死因一直是人们争论和研究的对象。如今，一位法国历史学家正力图冲破政府方面的阻力，通过DNA测试来揭开这一历史之谜。 历史学家布鲁诺·罗伊·亨利认为在1840年拿破仑的棺椁运抵法国之前，英国政府已经偷梁换柱，转移了他的遗体，而如今摆放在荣军院金色屋顶下的其实是另一个人的尸体。

尽管亨利称这项DNA测试能够确认拿破仑坟墓里那具尸体的身份，使得所有疑问得以真相大白，但是法国国防部却拒绝进行测试，至少在目前是这样的。

罗伊·亨利说道："我有一种感觉，法国政府对此感到十分不安。"

亨利指的是当初围绕拿破仑之死的种种反常的事情：拿破仑1821年在南大西洋圣赫勒那岛上溘去，可是他的遗体19年之后才被运回巴黎。

他引用了拿破仑大帝银马刺失踪的证据：当拿破仑在圣赫勒那岛下葬的时候，那些马刺是装在他的靴子上的。但是当他的棺木1840年在巴黎被打开的时候，那对马刺却不翼而飞了。当时在场的人说棺椁里的尸体保存完好，压根不像已经被埋葬了19年之久的样子。

为证实自己的理论，七月份罗伊·亨利致信法国国防部，提出要对拿破仑的一缕头发进行DNA测试。

在棺木到达巴黎荣军院之前，医生们从如今被放置在那里的尸体上取下了一缕头发。1936年巴黎军事博物馆中的拿破仑棺木永久陈列馆开放之前，这缕头发被交到了拿破仑的侄子--拿破仑三世手中。

罗伊·亨利说："得到结论的最简单方法就是进行DNA测试，但是已经遭到拒绝，所以我断定这里一定有些事被隐瞒了。"

国防部还告诉罗伊·亨利说，他必须求得一些居住在意大利和其出生地--科西嘉岛的拿破仑后裔们的同意，请求他们为进一步的测试提供DNA样本。

然而英国人转移拿破仑尸体的动机到底是什么呢？围绕拿破仑之死所涉及的这些情况仍是一个颇有争议的论题。

罗伊·亨利称，尽管教科书上说拿破仑是死于胃癌，但是除此之外还有另一种普遍的说法：拿破仑是被英国人用砒霜毒害的。如果后一种说法属实的话，英国政府就自然要想方设法掩盖罪行。

他承认目前还没有证据证明任何一种推测的真伪。但是如果进行DNA测试的话，至少可以查出躺在拿破仑坟墓里的人到底是谁。