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Napoleon (Napoleon I): died 1821, St. Helena, South Atlantic..Last Wish: That his body be cremated after his head was shaved and his hair divided among friends..Euthanasia: Beginning in the spring of 1821, Napoleon was in agonizing stomach and liver pain. His vomiting --combined with acute diarrhea from amoebic dysentery picked up on the island -- severely dehydrated him. His physician at the time, Francisco Antommarchi, sent by the former emperor's relatives in Corsica, began feeding him a harsh tartar emetic, a poisonous antimony compound, masked in lemonade. It was a standard medical purgative. The drink made Napoleon writhe on the floor in agony, but the dosings continued. A second physician, military doctor Archibald Arnott, suggested that the emperor be helped by even more purging...Today their judment seems appalling; in fact, purging the stomach of a patient with stomach cancer seems downright malicious. And murderous. But in that day doctors routinely subjected weak, dying patients to copious purging, bleeding blistering, and enemas... When Napoleon's suffering intensified, Dr. Arnott mercifully administered ten grains of the toxic mercurial laxative, Colomel, more than three times recommended maximum dose. Within hours, the former emperor was unconscious. He died at 5:49 P.M. that day, May 5. Advanced stomach and liver cancer remain incurable today..His final words, murmured in fits, were: "God! ...France! ...My son! ...Josephine!"

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