Hartnell's time machine: 170-year-old nails reveal severe zinc deficiency played a greater role than lead in the demise of the Franklin Expedition

2016/12/06 by Jennie R. Christensen, Joyce M. McBeth, Joyce McBeth +3 · 8 citations
Environmental Science · Medicine · Nursing · #Archaeology #Crew #Demise #Heavy Metal Exposure and Toxicity #History #Law #Medicine #Mercury impact and mitigation studies #Pathology #Physiology #Political science #Trace Elements in Health #Zinc deficiency (plant disorder)

paper · doi:10.1016/j.jasrep.2016.11.042

published in Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 16, 430-440 (Elsevier BV)

openalex publication_date 2016/12/06 · crossref created 2016/12/06 · crossref issued 2017/12/01 · crossref published 2017/12/01 · crossref published-print 2017/12/01 · crossref deposited 2018/10/11 · crossref indexed 2025/04/04 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/23

Citations

• Pb distribution in bones from the Franklin expedition: synchrotron X-ray fluorescence and laser ablation/mass spectroscopy
• Lead Levels in Human Tissues from the Franklin Forensic Project
• Lead and the Last Franklin Expedition
• Lead Poisoning: Historical Aspects of a Paradigmatic “Occupational and Environmental Disease”
• STABLE ISOTOPES IN ECOSYSTEM STUDIES

Cited by

• Finding the dead: bodies, bones and burials from the 1845 Franklin northwest passage Expedition
• Fingernail absolves lead poisoning in death of Arctic explorer
• Franklin's lost expedition [wikipedia]