Joyce Maier wrote:

>Very true.  There's not the slightest trace of a proof that Beethoven
>himself saw the cause of his deafness (started in about 1796/7!) in a
>venereal disease.  However, at least once in his life he seemed to have
>pondered about a possible venereal infection (in 1814!), but he never
>connected it to his deafness.  He simply hadn't the foggiest idea about
>the cause of the deafness, in 1797 and in 1827 as well.

The radio program I listened to (and it is a very reputable station)
quoted from a letter by Beethoven himself where he links his deafness
to a venereal infection.  Either they or you are wrong.

Robert