The men of the Andrée expedition probably died of botulism. A new hypothesis explains these mysterious deaths

The last camp of the three members of the 1897 Swedish Andrée balloon expedition to the North Pole was found in Svalbard in 1930. The human remains and the paraphernalia of the expedition including diaries were brought to Sweden and are presently housed in a museum. The cause of the deaths has never been determined, but several hypotheses have been put forward over the years. Trichinosis, scurvy, and poisoning by carbon-monoxide, vitamin-A or lead are some of them. In this article it is argued that botulism is a plausible explanation which is in better accord with known facts.