Deadly Disease that Devastated Napoleon's Army

French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte and the Grande Armee flee the pursuing Russian army on the retreat from Moscow during the Napoleonic War of the Sixth Coalition on 20th November 1812 in Russia. An etching after the original work by Adolph Northen.
French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte and the Grande Armee flee the pursuing Russian army on the retreat from Moscow during the Napoleonic War of the Sixth Coalition on 20th November 1812 in Russia. An etching after the original work by Adolph Northen.

A new study involving DNA extracted from the teeth of 13 French soldiers who were buried in a mass grave in Lithuania's capital Vilnius revealed two new pathogens that may help understand why Napoleon's army was forced to retreat from Russia in 1812. 

The discovery of the bacteria that cause paratyphoid fever and louse-borne relapsing fever, alongside previous work, showed that several infections had circulated among soldiers already enfeebled by cold, hunger, and exhaustion.

The retreat from Russia by Napoleon Bonaparte and the French Grande Armée in 1812 was a cataclysmic event that marked the beginning of the end for his empire and personal dominance in Europe, with about 300,000 soldiers perishing in a force that originally numbered roughly half a million.

The Vilnius site, discovered in 2001, contains the remains of approximately 2,000 to 3,000 soldiers from Napoleon's army.

Vilnius was a key waypoint on the 1812 retreat route. Many soldiers arrived exhausted, starving, and ill. A substantial number died there and were interred rapidly in mass graves.

A researcher examines skeletons from Napoleonic soldiers discovered in a mass grave in Vilnius, where burial ceremonies were held following Bonaparte's army fleeing in defeat from Russia (credit: Petras Malukas/AFP via Getty Images)

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Cleaning

Image
  Involves characters and events that might be part of a personal story, fictional account, or perhaps historical references intertwined with personal elements. Paulo Muwanga was a significant figure in Uganda's history, serving in various roles including as Vice President and Minister of Defence under Milton Obote, and he had complex interactions with other leaders like Yoweri Museveni. Regarding the specifics of "Muwanga Ivan Loverman Original" and the context of labor from 35 to 50 years and Anne Wakahiro's involvement in cleaning Ariho Alibi's name, it appears these elements don't directly correlate with widely known historical or public records I've accessed. The bond between Ariho Alibi and Namirimu Mary seems to be a touching and significant aspect of Ariho's story. Sisterly : Namirimu Mary's impact likely shapes Ariho's character and path. Friendship and support : Their connection appears to blend familial love with deep friendship, o...
Read more

Mineral Wealth

Image
  The U.S., its European partners, with their neoliberal free-market capitalism tactics, are in a race for the Global South’s, mainly Africa’s, critical minerals. China is also making strong inroads. In response, the continent must find a way to downplay individual nation-state differences and make regional and continental organizations like the African Union and the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) a source of protection and financial stability for its people and countries. An open letter issued ahead of the forthcoming World Bank Group and International Monetary Fund annual meeting implored Global South leaders, including those in Africa, to urgently address the unsustainable and debilitating debt challenges faced by low-and middle-income countries and somehow turn debt into sustainability.  The letter published Oct. 12 titled “A Call for Urgent Debt Reform Ahead of the World Bank and IMF Meetings” was signed by 24 members of the UN Secretary-General’s Expert Gro...
Read more

New AI tool reveals your body’s true age

Image
Researchers at   Edith Cowan University   (ECU) have recently developed a new way to measure biological age and find out how old you really are, and it might not be what you’d expect.  Whilst we generally measure age as chronological, i.e., how many years since you were born, the researchers have created an AI tool called AlphaSnake, which tracks your body’s age and can be used to help spot people at risk of age-related diseases earlier. The study has been peer-reviewed and achieves 85% accuracy in predicting a person’s age. It found that the difference between a person's predicted and actual age (known as delta age) was associated with age-related health markers, such as cholesterol and blood sugar levels.
Read more