XVIII.
CURIOUS CHARACTERISTICS.
NAPOLEON'S constitution, Méneval declares, was "naturally robust; and the oath which he had taken from his youth to break off all bad habits had fortified it. He had all the advantages of the bilio-sanguine temperament."
"I never saw Napoleon ill; he was only occasionally subject to vomiting bile, which never left any after effects. . . . He had feared, for some time, that he was affected with a disease of the bladder . . . but this fear was found to be without foundation. It has been noticed that men are rarely really suffering from the disease with which they imagine themselves to be affected. The existence of the disease which killed the Emperor was not suspected at that time, and I never heard him complain of pains in the stomach."
But like many robust people, Napoleon was extremely sensitive in certain respects. "The slightest evil smell was sufficient to upset him greatly," and he had "so keen a sense of smell that he could detect the vicinity of a subterranean passage, a cellar, or a sewer, a long way off."
Here is an even more peculiar instance of his sensitiveness:
"He had been anxious to gain some acquaintance with anatomy, and for this purpose Doctor
