Beethoven and heavy metal
four Beethoven enthusiasts purchased a lock of the great composer's mane in December 1994. Testing the hair showed that he may have suffered from lead poisoning.
Beethoven had demonstrated musical genius since his birth in 1770. He gave his first public performance by the age of eight, and by the time he was 11 he was a court apprentice. He began composing music at age 12. He met with some of the greatest composers of all time, namely Mozart and Haydn. His best works are considered some of the greatest ever composed.
The man behind these opuses, however, was very complicated and known for extreme eccentricities. In the latter part of his life he often lived in squalor and became increasingly irritable; he also suffered from depression. Until now, many had associated these traits with Beethoven's inability to deal with his deteriorating sense of hearing.
But the new study conducted by William Walsh, doctor at the Health Research Institute and Pfeifer Research Center in Naperville, usa, revealed a different story. Beethoven's hair was found laden with extremely high level of lead. The hair analysis was performed at the McCrone Research Institute and the Argonne National Laboratory, usa. The findings revealed that Beethoven had plumbism (lead poisoning), which may have caused his life-long illnesses, impacted his personality and possibly contributed to his death.
Reactions to lead poisoning are known to include delusions, manic behavior and body-tremors. The findings came as a surprise; the research was initially intended to discover whether Beethoven had been treated for syphilis, which in the 1800s was treated with mercury-based medicines. The researchers also looked for distinctive trace-metal patterns associated with genius, irritability, glucose disorders and malabsorption. But none of those trace metals were found.