The Heart of Napoleon

"At the post-mortem examination, Dr. A. Arnott, M.D., late of the 20th Foot Regiment, got charge of Napoleon's heart, which was deposited in a hand basin with water. The doctor took the basin into his bedroom, and placed it on the hob, expecting it to be in perfect safety till morning.

During the night, he was awoke by hearing a plunge, and, suspecting at once the cause of the alarm, started out of bed. Fortunately, there was a lamp burning in the chamber. A rat had seized hold of the heart, but found it so heavy that it dropped from his teeth into the water, and then made his escape. The doctor took the basin, with it's precious contents, into the bed with him, along with a good long stick: but his slumbers were at an end for the remainder of the night.

The armourer of the 20th Regiment of Foot soldered the silver vase in which the heart of Napoleon was deposited in the presence of Dr. Arnott on the following day."

Kindly communicated by General A.J.A. Wright, C.B., being a literal copy of a written statement made by his grand-mother, who died at the age of 94 years in 1874, and who had received from the lips of Dr. Archibald Arnott himself. 

Dr. Arnott died at Kirkconnel Hall, Ecclefechan, Dumfriesshire, on the 6th July, 1855, in the 84th year of his age.