5 months ago
25
At 7pm May 7, 1824, Ludwig van Beethoven, then 53, strode onto the stage of the Theatre am Karntnertor in Vienna to help conduct the world premiere of his
Ninth Symphony
, the last he would ever complete. That performance was unforgettable in many ways. But it was marked by an incident that revealed to the audience of 1,800 people how deaf the revered composer had become.
Beethoven was oblivious to the applause he received.
A soloist had to turn him around to see the raucous adulation he could not hear. It was one more humiliation for a composer who had been mortified by his deafness since he had begun to lose his hearing in his 20s. But why had he gone deaf? And why was he plagued by unrelenting abdominal cramps, flatulence and diarrhea? Fans and experts has debated various theories. Was it Paget's disease of bone, which in the skull can affect hearing? Did irritable bowel syndrome cause his
gastrointestinal problems
? Or might he have had syphilis, pancreatitis, diabetes or renal papillary necrosis, a kidney disease?
After 200 years, a discovery of
toxic substances
in locks of the
composer's hair
may finally solve the mystery. William Meredith, founding director of the Ira F. Brilliant Centre for Beethoven Studies at San Jose State University, began searching for locks at auctions and in museums a few years ago. He and his colleagues ended up with five locks that were confirmed by a
DNA analysis
to have come from the composer's head.
The result, said Paul Jannetto, the lab director, was stunning. One of Beethoven's locks had 258 micrograms of lead per gram of hair, and the other had 380mcg. A normal level in hair is less than 4mcg of lead per gram. "These are the highest values in hair I've ever seen," he said. Beethoven's hair also had arsenic levels 13 times what is normal and mercury levels that were 4 times the normal amount. David Eaton, a toxicologist not involved in the study, said Beethoven's gastrointestinal problems "are consistent with
lead poisoning
." As for
Beethoven's deafness
, he added, high doses of lead affect nervous system and could have destroyed his hearing. Lead had been used in wines and food in 19th-century Europe, as well as in medicines. Lead, in the form of lead acetate, also called "lead sugar", has a sweet taste. Beethoven drank copious amounts of wine, about a bottle a day, and later in his life even more, believing it was good for his health.
