Beethoven's hair - again
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he levels of arsenic and mercury in Beethoven’s hair were slightly elevated.
The lead levels, on the other hand, were a startling 64 to 95 times higher than the hair of someone today.
It was a dramatic reveal — which could explain why, in that moment, the opening bars of Beethoven’s 5th Symphony crashed through Erdahl’s brain:
“Dun dun dun dun.”
“This is so much more elevated than any other patient samples we’re seeing,” she recalls thinking. “This is extremely significant.”
Where classical music meets heavy metal
That substantial buildup of the toxic metal likely came from the goblets and glasses Beethoven drank out of, certain medical treatments of that age, and his consumption of wine.
“We do know Beethoven loved his wine,” says Jannetto. “And back then, it was not uncommon to actually add lead acetate to the less expensive wines because it binds the acids to add a sweeter flavor to the wine.”
Jannetto says that even for people of his time period, the lead levels in Beethoven’s hair would have been about 10 times higher than average. “What this showed is he had a chronic exposure to high concentrations of lead,” he says.
The lead wouldn’t have killed him, but it likely contributed to his health problems.
“A lot of those documented ailments that Beethoven had,” says Jannetto, “those are traditional signs and symptoms that a neurologist or clinician could see in a patient that was exposed to lead.” These include liver disease (which would have been aggravated by his genetic risk factor, regular drinking, and infection with hepatitis B), gastrointestinal challenges, and hearing loss.
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Makes sense to me. Beethoven’s health was at best, a mess and its least cause was not limited to bad luck or genetics.
@Renauda said in Beethoven's hair - again:
Beethoven’s health was at best, a mess
Yeah, no kidding. Somewhere I read that the cause of death was "jaundice and dropsy." Sounds like liver failure to me.
Also, his gut was awful. I believe it was Rossini who visited him in Vienna and was appalled at the condition of his apartment. There were chamber pots stored under the piano, filth everywhere.
Robert Greenberg commented that the Second Symphony might have been Beethoven's way of externalizing his cranky gut. The whole 4th movement is a bunch of hiccups, burps and farts.
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