Napoleon’s withdrawal from Russia in 1812 was one of the worst comebacks in history. A new study of the disease theory makes the situation worse.
Investigators in France and Estonia have identified viruses in the remains of soldiers returning to Russia that cause Paratypoid fever and influenza. While the study cannot say how widespread the disease was, it points to the victims behind the symptoms described in the historical records of Napoleon’s army.
“Returns from Russia were prohibited from October 19 to December 14 1812 and led to the loss of each napoleonic festival,” said the study in a study published on Friday Current Biology. “According to historians, it was not torture in the Russian army that killed almost 300,000 men, but rather the coldness of the Russian winter, accompanied by hunger and disease.”
Pathogens that cause the flu
The group also found re-arranged DNA from the teeth of soldiers previously deported from Lithuania, who may have died of infectious diseases. Their analysis revealed evidence of two viruses – subspecies a Salmonella in Enterica belongs to the list of paratphe c (S. ENTERYICA Paratyphi c), which causes paratypoid fever; and Borrelia Revientiscausing relapsing fever.
The results represent the first genetic evidence of Napoleon’s soldiers suffering from these viruses. Specifically, four soldiers were tested for what happened S. ENTERYICA Paratyphi c both B. Redwarentis. Both diseases can cause high fever, fatigue, and digestive problems, and their symptoms match those described in the historical records of Napoleon’s army. With soldiers already suffering from cold, hunger, and poor hygiene, one can only imagine the plight of these men.
Because investigators only examined 13 of the nearly 300,000 soldiers who died during the retreat to Russia, they can’t determine how many pathologies they caused. However, “The presence of these undetected viruses in these soldiers suggests that they may have contributed to the destruction of Napoleon’s Harle Armbee during the retreat in 1812,” the researchers explained.
Modern Relevance
He investigates the genomic data of relevant pathogens that shed light on the development of infectious diseases, carrying the sounds of modern disease research, Nicolás rascovan, who is the author of the Microbial Paleogenomics department at the center, described in a statement from the Center.
Rascovan and his colleagues continue to be disturbed by the hypothesis that without stress, cold and harsh conditions, infectious diseases contributed to the collapse of Napoleon’s 1812 campaign in Russia. More broadly, this study also provides more insight into a disappointing military failure, one that was largely overlooked by Adolf Hitler a century later during the later Barbarossa campaign.
