Though it is not known exactly who invented gunpowder, the most accepted opinion is that Chinese alchemists discovered gunpowder in the attempt to discover the elixir of life. However, these blends were not explosive (which requires refined potassium nitrate) but merely flammable. The mixture, which had the ability of turbulent combustion, was used for military purposes: it was shaped as a ball, set on fire, and thrown by catapults at the enemy. Bamboo tubes were also filled with this mixture and, with one end closed, set on fire. These devices could be considered prototype guns.

Gunpowder is made from potassium nitrate, sulfur and charcoal in particular ratios. However, potassium nitrate is not commonly found in nature. As the demand for killing and gunpowder went up, so did the demand for potassium nitrate. For a while, it was made from bat guano, but it was tough to hire people (the original batmen) to go into caves and harvest bat guano.

Urine was the solution. There were two early methods. The French method involved mixing manure, ashes, straw and human urine, fermented for a year, then filtered through ashes and straw. The Swiss method involved placing a sandpit under a stable to collect horse urine. Only the urine made it into the sand, which would be finished using the French method. The filtered and dried product was potassium nitrate.

One of the stories about the Civil War that frequently circulates is that the South was dirt poor and the North was fairly affluent. This was mostly true as most of the industry, especially extremely technical industries like chemical manufacturing or steel working, was in the industrial northeast. So the Confederates were stumped when looking for sources of potassium nitrate. In 1863, during the Civil War, Confederate chemist Jonathan Harrelson, figured out how to create more potassium nitrate by extracting it from human urine. Though the men were all away fighting, southern women could collect their urine from bedpans and pour it into a huge horse-drawn truck for the manufacture of potassium nitrate. A request was placed in the Selma Alabama newspaper: “When A Lady Lifts Her Skirt, She Shoots A Horrid Yankee.”

The Battle of Waterloo in 1815 was the epic end to the decade of turmoil that surrounded Napoleon Bonaparte’s stunning rise to power. Through a series of military victories across Europe that threw the Continent into disarray, Napoleon crowned himself Emperor of France (1804) and King of Italy (1805). A coalition consisting of much of the rest of Europe finally managed to topple his rule in 1814, exiling the former emperor to the island of Elba, and restoring King Louis XVIII to the French throne. After only 10 months of captivity however, Napoleon escaped and was embraced by the French military, who restored him to rule.

The time that followed Napoleon’s escape from Elba would become known as the “Hundred Days.” While Bonaparte moved to regain control of the large portions of Europe that he had conquered during his first run as Emperor, other European powers acted swiftly to contest his power grab, rallying 600,000 troops within days. Bonaparte took the offensive in an effort to divide the Prussian and British armies by moving into the lands that now comprise modern-day Belgium. He managed to surprise the Prussian army led by Prince Blucher as they were marching to join the Brits. This success on June 16, 1815, known as the Battle of Ligny, motivated the French troops and forced the Prussians to retreat. The majority of Napoleon’s forces then moved to support the attack on the British army, which was retreating toward Waterloo.

Napoleon planned to attack the British, led by the Duke of Wellington, at Waterloo before the Prussians could arrive to provide support. While Wellington was reportedly awake and organizing his troops by 6am on June 18, Bonaparte’s actions that morning are the subject of controversy. What is not disputed is that the French forces got a “late start,” beginning their attack on the British positions somewhere between 11am-1:30pm. The cause for this delay is debated. Tradition holds that terrible weather had left the ground sodden, which would have made artillery movements very difficult if not impossible. Another possibility, however, is that General Bonaparte himself was suffering from a serious illness which impaired his judgement.

The French leader was known to have suffered from urinary complaints. He and many of his soldiers reported urinary problems during the Egyptian campaigns in 1798, possibly schistosomiasis. As early as 1810, his physicians had noted that Napoleon had bouts of urinary retention lasting up to 24 hours. Several sources suggest Napoleon was in throes of a serious urologic infection, possibly even urosepsis, during the Russian campaign in 1812. He had a fever, was passing sediment in his urine, and complained of severe dysuria and retention. Experts theorize this illness led to Napoleon’s failure to capitalize on his victory at the Battle of Borodino, allowing the Russian army to regroup and eventually, with the help of the long cold Russian winter, force the retreat of Napoleon’s forces.

Such suggestions stemmed from observations of Napoleon’s officers as well as letters to his brother Jerome, who commanded a division of the army. These sources state that Napoleon fell back asleep at his table after breakfast on the day of the Battle of Waterloo, having perhaps taken laudanum to dull the severe pain of dysuria from cystitis, and had to be roused at 11am. Napoleon had appeared ill since the day before, prompting one of his generals, Vandamme, to say that "... the Napoleon that we have known no longer exists ...our success of yesterday will not have any future results.” Jerome Bonaparte around the time of the battle stated that his brother was suffering “a little weakness of the bladder,” but later confessed to a historian, a Monsieur Thiers, that he had been embarrassed to say at the time that Napoleon’s main complaint was hemorrhoids, which also plagued him for decades. There is of course a possibility that these two complaints could be linked and simultaneous, if chronic struggles to urinate led to prolapse of hemorrhoids. Either of these conditions, cystitis or inflamed hemorrhoids, could have made it very painful for the Emperor to ride his horse and command his troops, as some sources suggest he did less of than usual on June 18, the day of the Battle.

Whatever the cause, Napoleon’s dominance in Europe came to a stunning end in 1815, as he “met his Waterloo” and was defeated by the Allied troops that day. He abdicated and was exiled to Saint Helena, where he later died at age of 51 of advanced stomach cancer.

Napoleon III’s reign as leader of France is described by historians as disastrous, ineffectual, and a total failure. Infamy is not unexpected for a man who was exiled three times, initiated failed foreign policies, and led the wholly-unprepared France into an ill-advised war with Prussia. Total defeat in the Franco-Prussian War in 1870 facilitated unification of Germany and changed the course of European history.

As Napoleon I’s nephew, Napoleon III spent much of his childhood in exile. Following the death of his cousin, Napoleon I’s son, he staged a failed coup d’etat and fled to the United States. He was elected president of the Second French Republic in 1848, before staging a second coup in 1851 to retain power as Emperor of the Second French Empire.

Meanwhile, as early as 1840, Napoleon III was suffering with unexplained dysuria. He eventually faced episodes of gross pyuria, requiring catheterizations. Nonetheless, he would deny this and attribute his ailments to rheumatism. By 1869, his urine was consistently pyuric, for which he was treated with opium. Napoleon was so lethargic and dispirited that those close to the emperor thought he…was pitiful to see. He could barely sit up in his armchair, and his drawn face expressed at the same time moral anguish and physical pain. By 1870 he could barely walk with a cane, much less mount his steed.

The 1860s also saw the rise of Prussia and its chancellor, Otto von Bismarck. Napoleon III searched for allies against this growing threat, but was unsuccessful. Despite his smaller army and dwindling resources, Napoleon III moved against Prussia in 1870. The mobilization of the French army was chaotic, culminating in critical military losses. The ultimate defeat came in the Battle of Sedan, in which Napoleon III personally led the French army. Per an observer: as the German shells rained down on the French positions, [Napoleon III] wandered aimlessly in the open around the French positions.

Napoleon III was captured and lived as a prisoner to Prussia until 1872, when he was released to rejoin his wife in exile.

Military defeat, however, was not the end of Napoleon III’s misfortunes. Sir Henry Thompson, the foremost expert in bladder stones, was called upon to see Napoleon III in December 1872 and diagnosed him with a bladder stone. In the weeks that followed, Thompson performed two separate lithotripsy procedures to crack the case. Nonetheless, even a surgeon couldn’t save the exiled Emperor. On the morning of his third procedure, Napoleon III succumbed to uremia, largely due to an obstructive bladder stone fragment within his urethra.

Historians today still wonder why Napoleon III acted with such folly in 1870. Did his ambition and poor foreign policy finally catch up to him? Was he pressured into war by his Empress and the people of France? Was his military failure simply that? Or did distress from his bladder stone cloud his judgement?

Whether his military acumen or the stone was at fault, we can say Napoleon III left his legacy to us, stuck between a rock and a hard place.