This is a response to a response to a posting ... kind of like looking in mirrors facing each other on opposite sides of a room. Bernard Chasen responds to Larry Sherwood: >>Beethoven died of lead poisoning. > >I think that there is room for agnosticism. The experimenters did the >only thing they were equipped to do: analyze hair and fragments of remains >for abundance of various elements. We accept a diagnosis from your >doctor based only on the elements in your hair? It should be noted that this chemical analysis of lead poisoning was coupled with the knowledge that Beethoven drank from a favoured lead cup. While not 100% conclusive, it presents evidence strong enough to convince most juries or at least the ones portrayed on TV's Law and Order. Add to this the 19th century corporate-conspiracy theory of wine laced with lead to make it taste like fine-aged vintages posited by Nicholas J. Yasillo and we have ourselves a lead-pipe (I mean lead-cup) cinch that Beethoven was lead belly. Ain't science wonderful? Bill Cutler