Jean-Paul Marat: Médico, científico y revolucionario / Jean-Paul Marat: Physician, scientist and revolutionary

Physician, scientist and revolutionary are the biographical aspects that had better summarize the life of Jean-Paul Marat (1743-1793). Due to the role that he played during the French Revolution, his work as a physician and scientist, prior to the events of l789, was forgotten. Marat made important contributions in the area of optics and electricity reflected in numerous publications, as well as translating Newton's Opticks (1787). Well known for his radical and aggressive ideas, his political vocation led him to embrace the revolutionary cause after the events of the Bastille. His figure was not indifferent to his contemporaries; although considered a hero by the poorest citizens, aristocrats and bourgeois considered him a cruel extremist. During the last years of his life, he suffered a cutaneous disease, the diagnosis of which is still a matter of controversy. Proposed diagnoses include eczema, seborrheic dermatitis, scabies and dermatitis herpetica, among others. Marat was assassinated by Charlotte Corday in 1793, becoming a martyr for some segments of the society that worshiped his memory. He was a man with a complex and curious personality whose figure and legacy are still a matter of discussion.

La muerte de Napoleón: ¿causa natural u homicidio?

Napoleón Bonaparte murió a la edad de 52 años mientras purgaba exilio en la isla de Santa Helena, en el Atlántico Sur, una colonia británica donde fue desterrado luego de su derrota en Waterloo en 1815. Desde 1961 han abundado las teorías de que Napoleón murió envenenado con arsénico, particularmente porque el análisis de sus cabellos mostró elevados niveles del elemento tóxico. Sin embargo, de acuerdo a una nueva investigación sobre la causa de muerte del emperador francés, su muerte tuvo origen en una causa más prosaica de lo que muchos pensarían, sucumbió a un cáncer del estómago más que por envenenamiento arsenical. La autopsia describe un tumor gástrico de 10 cm de extensión. Otras fuentes históricas muestran que el obeso líder francés había perdido cerca de nueve kilogramos de peso en los últimos meses de su vida, otro signo de cáncer gástrico. La cavidad gástrica estaba llena de un líquido en borra de café, un claro signo de importante sangrado en el tracto digestivo. Este sangrado masivo, fue la causa inmediata de su muerte

Napoleon Bonaparte died at age 52 while in exile on the South Atlantic island of Saint Helena, a british colony, where he was banished after his defeat at the battle of Waterloo in 1815. Theories that Napoleon was poisoned with arsenic have abounded since 1961, when an analysis of his hair showed elevated levels of the toxic element. According to new research into what killed the french emperor his death’ cause was more prosaic than some people would like to think, succumbing to stomach cancer rather than arsenic poisoning, The autopsy describes a tumor in his stomach that was 4 inches (10 centimeters) long. Other historical sources indicate that the rotund French leader had lost about 20 pounds (nine kilograms) in the last few months of his life, another sign of stomach cancer. His stomach also contained a dark material similar to coffee grounds, a telltale sign of extensive bleeding in the digestive tract. The massive bleeding was likely the immediate cause of death