We love a good literary mystery…

 

Let’s see what Scientific American has to say about this one –

 

 

[FAMOUS FOLLICLES: Scientists have the technology to test Jane Austen’s hair for lethal levels of arsenic. Image: Wikimedia Commons]

 

 

Was Jane Austen Poisoned by Arsenic? Science May Soon Find Out

 

 

Modern techniques could reveal whether the celebrated English novelist’s surviving hair contains unusually high levels of arsenic

 

By Ferris Jabr

 

On April 27, 1817, Jane Austen sat down and wrote her will, leaving almost all of her assets—valued at less than 800 pounds sterling—to her sister Cassandra. In May, the sisters moved to Winchester, England, so the bedridden Jane would be near her doctor. On July 18, only a few days after dictating 24 lines of comic verse to Cassandra, Jane died.

 

Since at least the 1960s Austen scholars, doctors and fans have tried to retrospectively identify the curious illness that killed the 41-year-old English author…

 

For the complete article click here.

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