Scientists say they’ve discovered traces of the deadly pathogens that ravaged Napoleon’s soldiers during his doomed 1812 retreat from Russia — offering a clearer picture of the circumstances of the French general’s downfall.

A study published in the journal Current Biology on Nov. 3 analyzed DNA from the teeth of French soldiers who were buried in a mass grave in Vilnius, Lithuania.

The soldiers served under Napoleon during his disastrous invasion of Russia in the winter of 1812. They were among the roughly 300,000 French Grande Armée soldiers who perished in the campaign.

The teeth contained bacteria that causes paratyphoid fever and louse-borne relapsing fever, said the researchers — indicating that several infections circulated among the soldiers who were weakened by hunger and the

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