by Sign up for CNN’s Wonder Theory science newsletter. Explore the universe with news on exciting discoveries, scientific advances and more.
High levels of lead detected in authenticated locks of a Ludwig van BeethovenThe composer’s hair suggests that the composer had lead poisoning, which may have contributed to the ailments he suffered throughout his life, including deafness, according to new research.
In addition to hearing loss, the renowned classical composer had recurring gastrointestinal complaints throughout his life, had two bouts of jaundice and faced severe liver disease.
Beethoven is believed to have died of liver and kidney disease at the age of 56. But the process of understanding what caused his many health problems is a far more complex answer, one that even Beethoven himself anticipated that doctors could finally solve.
The composer expressed that he wanted his illnesses to be studied and shared so that “as far as possible, at least, the world will be reconciled with me after my death.”
An international team of researchers tried almost a decade ago to partially fulfill Beethoven’s wish by studying the locks of his hair. Using DNA analysis, the team determined which were truly the composer’s and which were fraudulent, and sequenced Beethoven’s genome by analyzing his authentication keys.
The results, published in a report in March 2023, showed that Beethoven had significant genetic risk factors for liver disease and hepatitis B infection before his death. But the results did not provide any insight into the underlying causes of his deafness, which began in his 20s, or his gastrointestinal issues.
Beethoven’s genome was made publicly available, inviting researchers around the world to investigate ongoing questions about Beethoven’s health.
Meanwhile, scientists continue to figuratively go over the authentic locks of Beethoven’s hair with a fine-toothed comb, teasing out surprising insights.
In addition to high lead concentrations, the latest results showed arsenic and mercury still trapped in the composer’s threads nearly 200 years after his death, according to a new letter published Monday in the journal Clinical Chemistry. And the insights could provide new windows into understanding not only Beethoven’s chronic health ailments, but the complex nuances of his life as a composer.
Reveals a tangled web of lead
Christian Reiter, now retired deputy director of the Center for Forensic Medicine at the Medical University of Vienna, had previously studied Hiller Lock, a hair sample long attributed to Beethoven. He wrote and published a 2007 paper after determining that there were high levels of lead in the hair, and suggested that the lead may have contributed to the composer’s deafness, and his death.
In short, a 2023 genome sequencing study revealed that the Hiller Lock did not belong to Beethoven, and was actually a hair sample from a woman. But at the time the researchers did not test for lead on Beethoven’s newly certified hair samples.
So the question remained: Did Beethoven have lead poisoning?
A separate research team used two different methods to search for evidence of lead in two authenticated locks of Beethoven’s hair: the Bermann lock, thought to have been cut between late 1820 and March 1827, and the Halm-Thayer lock, delivered by hand to Beethoven . to the pianist Anton Halm in April 1826.
It was very common during Beethoven’s lifetime for people to collect and keep locks of hair from relatives or famous people, said William Meredith, a Beethoven scholar and co-author of the 2023 genomic analysis study and the latest study.
The newer research detected extremely high levels of lead in both samples: 64 times the expected level in Bermann Lock, and 95 times the expected level in the Halm-Thayer lock.
“These levels are considered lead poisoning,” said lead study author Nader Rifai, professor of pathology at Harvard Medical School and director of clinical chemistry at Boston Children’s Hospital. “If you walk into any emergency room in the United States with these levels, you’ll be admitted immediately and given celebratory therapy.”
Beethoven diagnosed
Elevated levels of lead such as those found in Beethoven’s hair “are commonly associated with gastrointestinal and renal ailments and hearing loss but are not considered high enough to cause death alone,” the study authors wrote. Because the researchers don’t have hair samples from earlier in Beethoven’s life, it’s impossible to know when the lead poisoning started, Meredith said.
The authors of the study do not believe that lead poisoning alone was responsible for Beethoven’s death or deafness. But he had symptoms of lead poisoning throughout his life, including hearing loss, muscle cramps and kidney abnormalities, Rifai said.
Both greens also had increased levels of arsenic and mercury, about 13 to 14 times what was expected, according to the study.
Study co-author Paul Jannetto, associate professor in the department of laboratory medicine and pathology and laboratory director at the Mayo Clinic, analyzed the samples and said he had never seen lead levels this high.
But Rifai said he saw comparable lead levels when he did research in two villages in Ecuador where the biggest trade is in lead-glazed tiles from batteries. The villagers had mental retardation, hearing loss and hematological abnormalities, which are common in liver disease, he said.
Lead exposure in Beethoven’s lifetime
Currently, there is no understanding of the average amount of lead in the bodies of people like Beethoven who lived in Vienna during the 19th century, Rifai said.
He said he hopes to access old locks of hair that people have from their families to determine the basic population level at the time since there is no documentation.
But how did Beethoven have so much lead, as well as arsenic and mercury, in his body? The substances probably accumulated over the years of the composer’s life through food and drink, said Rifai.
Beethoven was known to favor wine, sometimes he drank a bottle a day, and he drank plum wine. A common practice dating back at least 2,000 years, the creation of plum wine involves adding lead acetate as a sweetener and preservative, Rifai said. At the time, lead was also used in glassmaking to give glassware a clearer and more attractive appearance.
Beethoven also loved to eat fish, and at the time, the Danube River was a great source of industry, which meant that waste was ending up in the same river that was the source of fish caught for consumption — and likely arsenic and mercury in that fish, Rifai. said.
The report marks the first time lead levels have been established for Beethoven and points to another possible cause of Beethoven’s kidney failure in the months before his death and the liver failure he suffered at the end of his life, Meredith said.
Lead poisoning appears to be a fourth contributing factor to his liver failure, in addition to Beethoven’s genes that predisposed him to liver disease, his hepatitis B infection and his penchant for drinking alcohol, Meredith said.
A link between health and Beethoven’s music
The composer wrote a letter to his brothers in 1802 asking his doctor, Johann Adam Schmidt, to determine and share the nature of his “illness” when Beethoven died. The letter is called the Heiligenstadt Testament.
But the documents kept by Beethoven’s favorite doctor, who died 18 years before his patient, have been lost.
In an 1802 letter to his brothers, Beethoven admitted that he had little hope as a composer struggling with hearing loss, but his work kept him from taking his own life. He said he didn’t want to leave “before I had done all the works I felt I wanted to compose.”
“People say, ‘music is music, why do we need to know any of these things?’ But in Beethoven’s life, his suffering is connected to the music,” said Meredith.
May 7 marked the 200th anniversary of the first performance of Beethoven’s famous Ninth Symphony, widely regarded as his best work and his final symphony. Completely deaf at the time, Beethoven was on stage as one of the conductors, but the orchestra was instructed to follow the direction of Beethoven’s friend, who was also on stage. The concert was one of the most successful occasions in Beethoven’s life, and the female singers turned to face the crowd as they clapped and threw their handkerchiefs at the beloved musician, Meredith said.
But at the end of the night, Beethoven gathered with three of his friends who helped organize the concert. What started out as a dinner to reward his friends resulted in Beethoven yelling at them and accusing them of ripping him off the money.
The situation was ironic, given that Beethoven was inspired while working on the Ninth Symphony in part by Friedrich Schiller’s poem “Ode to Joy,” and the symphony’s final themes include living in peace and harmony with one another, said Meredith. But above one sketch that Beethoven made for the Ninth Symphony, he included the French word for despair.
“When you look back on his life, it’s a life so full of despair. He went deaf. He never found a woman he could settle down to love. He had terrible stomach problems since he was a child. He had a really hard time building relationships with people,” Meredith said. “If you understand how much pain he was in and the paranoia he suffered because of the deafness, it makes the whole story of the Ninth Symphony that much more complicated.”
For more CNN news and newsletters create an account at CNN.com
