Ron Chaplin <[log in to unmask]> wondered:

>Joyce Maier wrote:
>
>>So those who vote for such a diagnosis, still have to find another, second
>>one for the liver cirrhosis.
>
>If memory serves me correctly, cirrhosis is caused by poor nutrition.

True, this is not impossible, at least partly, and in Beethoven's case it's
passionately defended by researchers Bankl and Jesserer in their book on
Beethoven's health (published in the eighties).  However, liver cirrhosis
is "only" a symptom and it's not difficult to make an impressive list of
the possible diseases and other causes behind it, alcohol abuse being the
usual one in our society and this was also the case in Beethoven's days.

>Is there any way of knowing what Beethoven's diet was?

Oh yes, we know quite a lot about Beethoven's diet.  To the standards of
his times his diet wasn't poor, but he had some very bad habits: he took
his meals at irregular times, divided them badly and drank too much.  He
arose very early (mostly at daybreak), hardly breakfasted, drank a hell of
a lot of very strong coffee, worked for some hours, then left home for a
walk of about 10 kilometers and finally took a heavy meal (sometimes in a
restaurant, sometimes prepared by a housekeeper) to which he drank a bottle
of wine, often of bad quality.  In restaurants he used to end the meal with
a pipe.  In the evening he ate some soup and bread and he ended the day
with a good glass of beer.  It is often thought that Beethoven suffered
from a bad health, but this is not the case.  On the contrary.  To about
half-way his forties he stayed in a good, even robust health, as proven for
instance by those extremely long walks.  He was in every respect a stout
walker.  Sometimes friends companied him and they got exhausted, due to his
tempo.  One of them complained about Beethoven's "genialer Rennschritt."
Even in October 1826, when he already suffered from liver cirrhosis, he
continued those walks.  Portraits of middle-aged Beethoven show a healthy,
fleshy face and in 1823 somebody wrote about him as a "fat man." Looking at
the caricatures I consider this somewhat exaggerated, but he surely had an
embonpoint in the beginning of his fifties.  However, in 1821 he suffered
from his first attack of hypothesis, but he recovered.  This was not the
case in 1825.  The second attack (maybe third, this is uncertain) killed
his good health, his embonpoint diappeared and the color of his face stayed
liverish (yellowish, due to jaundice).  In 1826 it rapidly went downhill
with his health and in the first days of December he got pneumonia.
Though this was cured he didn't recover.  The dropsy, already present in
September/October worsened and operations didn't help.  He died on March
26, 1827.

Joyce Maier (mail to: [log in to unmask] or [log in to unmask] or jev1945@)hotmail.com)
www.ademu.com/Beethoven