The real cause of Beethoven's death

According to the Associated Press and Agence France-Presse reported on June 5438+08, the death of the famous musician Beethoven has always been a topic of interest to people who like history.

The latest discovery is that the previous conclusion of Beethoven's lead poisoning is untenable: according to the analysis of two Beethoven skulls, this great composer did show the symptoms of lead poisoning many years before his death. It is probably for this reason that he appears gloomy and irritable.

& lt-Adforward Begin:-& gt； The skull confirmed Beethoven's lead poisoning.

165438+1October17th, Paul Kaufman, a businessman in Dainville, California, USA, announced a message that the skull fragments collected by his uncle in that year were most likely Beethoven's. These fragments were collected by Kaufman's father in 1863 and inherited by Kaufman before 15. However, even he himself is not sure about the authenticity of these skull fragments.

So, why did Kaufman suddenly announce it at this time? It turns out that Kaufman recently handed over two large pieces of Beethoven's skull (about 7 cm long) and 1 1 small pieces to the Beethoven Research Center of San Jose State University for "indefinite" preservation and research. Starting from 1999, this research center helped to identify the so-called "Beethoven skull" fragments.

Researchers at the center first tested skull fragments through DNA to confirm that they were Beethoven's skulls. Then they found that Beethoven had been suffering from lead poisoning for many years, which could lead to health problems such as headache, fatigue and difficulty in concentration. William meredith, director of the research center, speculated that in Beethoven's time, Europeans used lead pipes to transport drinking water, which may be the chief culprit of Beethoven's lead poisoning.

The legendary experience of skull fragments

Beethoven died in Vienna on 1827. 1863, Beethoven's body was dug up again for testing in order to find out the cause of his death. At that time, someone secretly gave him two large pieces and 1 1 small pieces. Meredith thinks that a man named Djihad Broening may have given Beethoven's skull fragments to Kaufman's ancestors. He was a good friend of Beethoven, and he visited him shortly after his death. 1963 After the body was dug up again, Beethoven's skull was kept by him. It is also reasonable for him to give seligman a few pieces, because seligman participated in the analysis of Beethoven's bones.

1892, seligman died, and the skull fragments fell into the hands of his son Albert. Albert later gave them to his cousin Ada Rosenthal and Rosenthal's child Alma for preservation. Alma later immigrated to the United States and married a German immigrant named George Kaufman. Paul Kaufman was their son. It was not until 1990 that these skull fragments were preserved by Thomas Desmini, Alma's brother who settled in Vince, France. It was in that year that the Kaufmans kept the skull fragments in a safe. It was not until 1999 that the writer Martin called them to look for these fragments, and they surfaced.

Kaufman also confirmed that his family got the two skull fragments at 1863. At that time, Beethoven's body was dissected and reburied. Kaufman, 68, said that he didn't hear about Beethoven's skull until 1986, when he went to France to visit his elderly uncle, who told him that his family had preserved several generations of Beethoven's skull fragments. At that time, he still had doubts about his uncle's statement.

He said that his uncle died in 1990, and he inherited two larger ones and 1 1. These fragments were placed in a pear-shaped iron box with the words "Beethoven" engraved on the lid. Later, the writer Martin wrote a book about Beethoven's death, trying to find Kaufman, who lived in Dainville, and strongly suggesting that he find an authority to identify the authenticity of these fragments.

This discovery is of great significance.

Meredith said that this discovery is an important event for Beethoven's music fans and scientists, because there have been many discussions about Beethoven's death since 1927.

In fact, as early as the end of 1990s, when examining Beethoven's hair, some scholars found that this great musician had symptoms of lead poisoning when he died. Of course, Beethoven also suffered from other diseases. Beethoven's theory of "lead poisoning" began to prevail at that time. A skull fragment preserved by Kaufman was sent to Argonne National Laboratory for heavy metal analysis. The results show that it contains as much lead as the lock of hair.

This strand of Beethoven's hair was auctioned by Sotheby's in London at 1994 and donated by the buyer to Beethoven Research Center. In 2000, Kaufman's works were handed over to a laboratory in North Carolina for testing, but it was impossible to connect them with this strand of hair. In the same year, the results of Argonne National Laboratory and the Pufa Treatment Center in Illinius made a positive conclusion.

It is reported that the hair and skull used in the two studies have been identified by DNA and confirmed to belong to Beethoven. Now, the latest batch of large skulls will provide scientists with more research materials to reveal whether Beethoven's deafness and personality disorder in his later years were caused by lead poisoning. After analysis, meredith thought that Beethoven had been poisoned by lead for at least several years, and one of the important reasons may be that the lead pipe that provided drinking water made Beethoven drink lead-containing water. As we all know, lead poisoning usually leads to problems such as headache, fatigue and inattention. Some historians believe that Beethoven's hearing loss and mania in his later years may be due to lead poisoning.