Ray Bayles wrote: >Many researchers believe that Beethoven's hearing may have been affected >by the treatments he sought out, rather than the actual Syphilis, because >he didn't have it long enough for the late manifestations to present >themselves with enough power to affect his hearing. He definitely knew >he had the disease, but he most likely tried to cure himself with the >assistance of doctors and charlatans while he was in the secondary stage. "Definitely knew"? No, this is not true. In not one of his letters or other utterances he ever confirmed this assumption. There's only remark in his diary (dated 1814) that could be attributed to a possible fear that he had contracted a veneral disease. However, he didn't mention a name nor the name of a medicine. It's a very mysterious remark and various researchers speculated that it had nothing to do with syphilis but everything with thoughts about suicide. The only proof in favor of the hypothesis that Beethoven had syphilis is a rumor that was told during the second half of the 19th century about a prescription by one of his doctors (Bertolini) who showed a copy to Thayer. Unfortunately the prescription got lost. We only have a letter by Thayer in which he writes about his visit to Bertolini. That's all, folks! In contrast to this there's a strong counter proof to the hypothesis: Beethoven's liver. A syphilis liver shows very typical changings. Beethoven's did not. He surely died of liver cirrhosis, but the kind of the cirrhosis fits very well to alcohol abuse and absolutely not to syphilis. For those who want to judge it themselves: a study of the autopsy report is very instructive indeed. And it's a fact that the research of his hair, cut from his head after his death, doesn't show a trace of the usual medicine, mercury of course. Joyce Maier (mail to: [log in to unmask] or [log in to unmask]) www.ademu.com/Beethoven