This is old news, but I haven't seen where it has been posted to this list.
The following article appeared on October 18. For the full text, see:
http://news.excite.com/news/ap/001018/06/beethovens-hair
CNN's version is at:
http://www.cnn.com/2000/HEALTH/10/17/beethoven.hair/index.html
See also San Jose State's Center for Beethoven Studies page at:
http://www.sjsu.edu/depts/beethoven/hair/hair.html
"Poison may have doomed Beethoven"
By MARTHA IRVINE, Associated Press Writer
ARGONNE, Ill. (AP) - An analysis of a lock of Ludwig van Beethoven's
hair suggests lead poisoning could explain certain ailments suffered
by the erratic genius, his strange behavior, his death, maybe even
his deafness.
The four-year analysis of the hair - apparently snipped after the
composer's death at age 56 in 1827 - has turned up a concentration
of lead 100 times the levels commonly found in people today, according
to researchers at the Health Research Institute in suburban Chicago,
where the hair was tested.
That means it is all but certain that the composer suffered from lead
poisoning, also known as plumbism, the researchers said.
"It was a surprise, but it stood out like a sore thumb in the analysis,"
said William Walsh, director of the institute's Beethoven research
project.
Scientists initially were searching for mercury, a common treatment
for syphilis in Beethoven's day. The absence of mercury supports
the recent consensus of scholars who believe Beethoven did not have
syphilis.
In rare cases, lead poisoning causes deafness, but scientists remain
unsure if that was what caused Beethoven's hearing loss.
-------------------------------------------------
Lead poisoning may also explain what some described as dramatic mood
swings on Beethoven's part.
-------------------------------------------------
The Health Research Institute scientists said that Beethoven's lead
exposure came as an adult but that the source of the lead is unclear,
though one possibility is the mineral water he swam in and drank
during his stays at spas.
The conclusions were based on chemical analysis by the McCrone Research
Institute in Chicago and images taken at Argonne National Laboratory
using an electron accelerator that creates the most detailed X-rays
available today.
Many mourners took hair from Beethoven while the body was on view in
the apartment in Vienna where he died of pneumonia and complications
of abdominal problems, which are a common symptoms of lead poisoning.
"He was shorn. He was practically bald when he was buried," said
Ira Brilliant, founder of the Center of Beethoven Studies.
Brilliant and Alfredo Guevara, a surgeon from Nogales, Ariz., bought
the hair in 1994 for $7,300 at Sotheby's auction house in London.
In all, there were 582 strands - 3 inches to 6 inches long - that
were gray and two shades of brown.
The analysis did not find drug metabolites, which indicate Beethoven
avoided painkillers during his long and painful death.
"This implies that he decided to keep his mind clear for his music,"
Walsh said.
Even Beethoven himself wanted to know what had made him so ill since
his early 20s. He wrote a letter to his brothers in 1802 asking them
to have doctors find the cause of his abdominal pain after his death.
"We feel that we're fulfilling part of his wishes, albeit 199 years
later," Walsh said.
Tim Dickinson
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http://www.tdware.com
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