Did Delius really have syphilis? Did he die from the disease or from the
cure?
Salvarsan was not a permanent cure. All patients given Salvarsan still had
the T.Pallidum behind their cornea and other sites. And they suffered from
the Salvarsan as much as they would have suffered from the disease in the
opinion of most modern epidemiologists.
People who gave up on Salvarsan are believed to have had the disease return
in later years.
For those who leap at another argument, Salvarsan was always found in the
hair of someone who had gone through treatment.
Several different treatments involving arsenic combined with other
compounds were used. Often the patient died or had other severe
manifestations either from the disease or from the treatment.
There are huge amounts of research files tucked away in many universities
around the world... the most complete are those at Emory University and
other places in the south. Victims of the Tuskeegee studies were the
"controls" for those who received these other treatments.
Still, all research epidemiologists I have read are in firm agreement that
Beethoven did not have Syphilis in any form...
Ray Bayles