What Killed Beethoven?

In the beginning of this journal, I identified myself as an amateur "Beethoven Scholar". From the time I was a student musician in high school and played the percussion part in the Eroica symphony, which he had originally composed in tribute to Napoleon, I became enamored of all his works, their little nuances and pastoral influences (he loved nature) and combed my way through all the stories, legends and lies.

What remained was a huge question mark. He died at 56 In Vienna, Austria, sick, deaf and destitute, but no one knew what ultimately killed him. I was of the opinion he may have died of one of 11 dementias, but nothing definitive was ever proven. Now we think we know, but we're still not 100^ sure. An article here goes into more detail, and, if you're interested, I invite you to read it, and maybe you'll come away with a better understanding of what could kill us in the 19th century, and how a prescient Beethoven himself delivered a lock of his hair to his friend and pianist Anton Halm to keep. He also wrote a letter, in which he asked his brothers to request his (Beethoven's) physician to determine the nature of his (Beethoven's) death. This is based mainly on hear-say, since Dr. Johann Adam Schmidt's death preceded Beethoven's by 18 years, and the letter, according to the article, has been lost.

"So what eventually killed him, Bill?", I can imagine you asking, your fingers impatiently drumming out, dah-dah-dah-DAH!  ("The Fifth Symphony" - also known as The Symphony Of Fate - which you should remember in case you're ever on Jeopardy!)

Was it lead poisoning? Was it mercury? Was it...arsenic? Patience! I'm getting there, Heuschrecke ("grasshopper")!

How about...a combination of all three? There was lead everywhere in those days, and according to one of the researchers in the article referenced above, Rader Rifai, professor of Pathology at Harvard Medical School, having such a lock of hair examined today would buy you a trip and admission to your local hospital's ICU.

Mercury? Fish was considered a "staple" during the period, and guess what industrial wastes got dumped into area lakes and waterways? Right! Mercury, Lead and Arsenic!

All three were contained in food, drink and containers of the day and The Maestro was known to have consumed a bottle of wine a day (lead in the glass of the bottle and to sweeten the wine, and mercury and arsenic in the fish caught from the Danube River). So my favorite composer was exposed to toxic chemicals on a daily basis, which, in turn led to such "hits" as liver disease, stomach cancer, and one that is near and not so dear to our hearts: dementia.

So let me suggest a new movie for Seth McFarlane: A Million Ways To Die In 19th Century Europe starring Seth himself as the Maestro.

And what can we conclude from the above? Ludwig is just as dead and his music is just as loved as ever, but even though no one understood what was slowly killing him, what might he have accomplished had he been well?