[log in to unmask] writes:

>Beethoven's deafness, whatever the cause was, was a sensorineural hearing
>loss, not a conductive hearing loss, as would be the case if there were a
>problem with the ossicles.  This is clear in Beethoven's own descriptions
>of his hearing loss dating back to the late 1799s, in which he describes
>difficulty with high pitched sounds, and with certain vowels (ref:
>Thayer's Life of Beethoven, ed.  Forbes).

Well said by a doctor in the house.  The problem is that all the web
sites and books are confusing the cause(unknown) with the type of loss
(sensorineural).  It will be more difficult to delve into the cause if the
writers themselves (i.e., the authors of books+web sites) do not understand
the difference between a conductive and sensori-neural loss thus adding to
the confusion and endless speculation.

Most of what I have read(90%+) is someone quoting someone else.  I came
across a music teacher's web site and he wrote "modern otologists are in
agreement that Beethoven suffered from otosclerosis of the mixed type"
which I do not agree with but at least he wrote 'modern otologists'.  So
I called the music teacher for information.  Got that out of the Grover's
music dictionary was his reply and consider to be the definitive source of
classical music.  Actually, I cannot recall the exact name of his source
but I think this is it.  But, he himself had no opinion.  Where are these
opinions? I cannot find any--not even one.  And if modern otolaryngologists
or otologists were to come together (yea right, keep dreaming) and study
all the past bio of Beethoven, examine all relevant facts, they would be
able to rule out statements that contradict each other.  I am referring to
the conductive, sensorineueral or mix loss.  Then you can narrow the causes
of his affliction.  It would be nice that this is in a form of an affidavit
so that their opinions are well thought out and in a concise manner that
gives us a way to understand how they came to their conclusions.  We would
be able to see how they handle different arguments from modern science.
Again, I make myself clear:  There is still misunderstanding about
Beethoven's type of loss in print-conductive, sensorneural or mix--so first
you have to get this out of the way.  This is easy to resolve--one has to
go(conductive)that leaves two left which begs the question why consider the
mix loss (I am too tired to go into now) but not much evidence for it.
What else is left? Sensorneural loss.  If anyone has evidence otherwise, I
would like to see it reasoned out.  You can quote books all day long of how
there is all this evidence of confusion between "experts" but unless they
can be questioned (many are dead) we do not know how well their knowledge
of the science of hearing is and how well they could hold up to severe
questioning to test their beliefs.  Hence the need for modern doctors
(like, 2001+).

Glenn Miller