6.1: The Building Blocks of a Speech

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Jim Marteney
Los Angeles Valley College via ASCCC Open Educational Resources Initiative (OERI)

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"Everyone is entitled to [their] own opinion, but not to [their] own facts"

--Daniel Patrick Moynihan

Screen Shot 2020-09-06 at 4.34.14 PM.png — 6.1.1: "Napoleon Boneparte" by Unknown is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0

After the death of the famous French leader, Napoleon Bonaparte, an autopsy was performed and the doctors announced that he had died of a perforated stomach ulcer that had turned cancerous. Some of his supporters did not believe this. They were convinced that he was murdered. Their beliefs were fueled by the fact that Napoleon himself had written that he was being poisoned. What evidence existed to support his accusations?

Fortunately, in accordance with his wishes in his will, many relatives were given strands of his hair. One hundred years after his death, Napoleon’s hair was tested and the results indicated that Napoleon had a trace amount of arsenic in his body. This raw data seemed to suggest that he was poisoned. But 20 years later, a second interpretation of the data suggested that he was killed by his wallpaper.

In the 1800's a type of wallpaper was colored with Scheele Green. This color was made with lead. That lead gave off arsenic compounds that could be absorbed by the human body and eventually affected the person's health. The walls in Napoleon’s room was covered this wallpaper.

But a third interpretation indicated that the wallpaper did not contain enough arsenic to kill Napoleon, but it did contain enough to exacerbate a stomach ulcer that eventually killed him. So, although the wallpaper wasn’t the ultimate killer, it did seem to contribute to Napoleon’s death. The conclusion indicated that Napoleon Bonaparte was not intentionally poisoned.

This story illustrates two important aspects of evidence:

The quality of evidence
The accurate interpretation of evidence

Both of which we will explore in this chapter.