Glenn Miller <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

>>Probably the deafness was caused by one of the most common causes of
>>deafness worldwide: otoscleroris, a disease of the bones of the inner
>>ear.  Also possible is cochlear otosclerosis, which is rare compared to
>>otosclerosis of the hearing bones, but would fit better to Beethoven's
>>symptoms.  However, since the bones of both inner ears were removed the
day
>>after his death and never examined, there's room for doubt.  Unfortunately
>>the bones got lost and stayed lost to this very day.  Without an
>>examination of these bones every diagnosis is a speculation.  It's not
>>difficult to fill a whole bookcase with digressions on the cause of
>>Beethoven's deafness and mysterious bowel troubles as well!  The dernier
>>cri is lead.  Hypothesis: Beethoven suffered from lead poisining, which
>>caused not only liver cirrhosis (the cause of his death, beyond any
doubt),
>>but also deafness.  I find the hypothesis highly unlikely.  Otosclerosis,
>>cochlear or not, is to be preferred.  But there are other possibilities
and
>>without those lost bones we'll never have certainty.

>...  In simple terms it is not possible for Beethoven to have otosclerosis
>a disease of the middle ear-not inner ear.  The maximum hearing loss to be
>caused is 50 to 60db, that is in the moderate range.  This is a conductive
>loss not involving the inner(cochlear+nerves) ear.  In other words, if the
>sound was loud enough it would have vibrated through Beethoven's head
>directly to the inner ear.  B would have heard conservation if people had
>simply raised their voice like someone shouting in anger.  Clearly, this
>was not the case for Beethoven.

Oh yes, it was.  For many years this was surely the case.  The vibration
through the head was a possibility for Beethoven to hear.  It must have
been the background of the fact that he put one end of a stick between his
teeth and then put the other end on the piano.  And more than one visitor
informed us about Beethoven hearing him when he shouted.  However, later
on the hearing loss worsened and it didn't help anymore, the stick nor
the shouting.  From 1817 this was the case, while the first signs of loss
of hearing date from about 1796.  One thing is for sure:  it was a slow
process, for as late as 1825 he was able to hear sounds, though only very,
very loud ones and, interesting for an expert, high-pitched.

>It is possible as Joyce Maier pointed out, that in B's case it started
>out as otosclerosis of the middle ear then progress to inner ear
>hear(cochlear+nerve)and in this case his hearing loss would be defined
>as a mix hearing loss.

Yes, I guess so too.

>I admit that I have not read everything on B deafness but any ear
>specialist who studies B's case would figure out what type of loss he had
>without knowing why he got the disease.

Of course!  I've studied them all and the list of experts who pondered
about is a long one.  Yet to this day they haven't reached consensus.

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