Research: What actually killed Napoleon's army?

A team led by Nicolas Rascovan of the Pasteur Institute in France analyzed samples taken from the teeth of 13 soldiers buried in Vilnius, Lithuania, using advanced metagenomic analysis. This method can identify previously unsuspected pathogens by analyzing all microbial DNA in the sample.

While the microbes that cause typhus or trench fever were not found in the study, Salmonella enterica, which causes paratyphoid fever, and Borrelia recurrentis, which causes relapsing fever and is transmitted by body lice, were detected.

"RECURRENT FIRE WEAKENED SOLDIERS"

Scientists say these two illnesses, combined with extreme fatigue and cold, may have weakened the soldiers and increased the death toll. Relapsing fever, in particular, while not directly fatal, may have severely weakened the already exhausted soldiers.

Commenting on the study, Dr. Sally Wasef of Queensland University of Technology noted that the amount of microbial DNA found was quite low and that the results were "preliminary" rather than definitive. According to Wasef, more studies on soldiers' graves are needed.