Beethoven died from liver and kidney disease at age 56. He expressed a wish that his ailments be studied and shared so “as far as possible at least the world will be reconciled to me after my death.”
Analysis of Beethoven’s hair suggests that he had lead poisoning, which may have contributed to ailments he endured throughout his life, such as hearing loss, G.I. issues, muscle cramps, and renal abnormalities.
The analysis detected incredibly high levels of lead, consistent with lead poisoning. Nader Rifai, professor of pathology at Harvard Medical School and director of clinical chemistry at Boston Children’s Hospital, said, “If you walk into any emergency room in the United States with these levels, you will be admitted immediately and you will undergo chelation therapy.”
Why did Beethoven have such high levels of lead (as well as arsenic and mercury) in his body?
It was likely accumulated over decades of the composer’s life through food and drink, Rifai said. Beethoven was known to favour wine, sometimes drinking a bottle a day, and he drank plumbed wine. Plumbed wine involves adding lead acetate as a sweetener and preservative. At the time, lead was also used in glassmaking to give glassware a more clear and appealing appearance.
William Meredith, a Beethoven scholar and study coauthor, said that Beethoven had been inspired as he worked on the Ninth Symphony in part by Friedrich Schiller’s poem “Ode to Joy,” and the themes of the symphony include living in peace and harmony with one another. But above one sketch Beethoven did for the Ninth Symphony, he included the French word for despair.
“When you look back at his life, it’s a life that is so full of despair. He went deaf. He never found a woman that he could settle down to love. He had terrible abdominal problems ever since he was a child. He really had a hard time sustaining relationships with people,” Meredith said. “If you understand how much pain he was in and the paranoia he experienced from the deafness, it makes that whole story of the Ninth Symphony much more complex.”
From CNN article: New analysis of Beethoven’s hair reveals possible cause of mysterious ailments, scientists say
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