Talk:Tin pest

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[edit] Regarding Napoleon's buttons

The tin buttons his troops wore on their uniforms allegedly fell to pieces in the cold. An invasion force of 600,000 returned as only 22,000 men. ... this sounds like the buttons' decomposition caused people to die - this is very vague. This sections needs references cited. --Abdull 11:57, 17 December 2005 (UTC)

Rewrote the paragraph in question to include a counterpoint. The story is told once again in a recent and apparently much read popular science book, Napoleon's buttons. This myth seems in desperate need of being traced to its source and debunked (in the full sense of ridding it of bunk). Many of the soldiers lived to tell the tale, so did they? Surely, metal buttons mysteriously crumbling en masse would have been a noteworthy detail which should occur in contemporary reports. A Russian observer describing the retreating French as a ragged bunch is hardly enough. --Rallette 08:29, 13 March 2006 (UTC)