Busts of Ludwig van Beethoven for sale in a souvenir shop in Bonn, Germany, in 2019. The composer's ... [+]
DNA extracted from Ludwig van Beethoven’s hair has already revealed intriguing details about the famed classical composer’s many medical ailments. Scientific analysis of his locks has now yielded a new insight: Beethoven suffered from lead poisoning, but not at levels high enough to kill him, as some medical biographers had previously theorized.
The diagnosis comes from lab medicine experts led by Harvard Medical School biochemist Nader Rifai. The team performed a toxin analysis of two authenticated locks of Beethoven’s hair and discovered a lead concentration 64 times the normal amount in one strand, and 95 times the standard in the other. From those numbers, the team estimated that the level of lead in the composer’s blood would have been several times higher than what’s considered normal for adults.
"While the concentrations determined are not supportive of the notion that lead exposure caused Beethoven's death, it may have contributed to the documented ailments that plagued him most of his life," Rifai said in a statement. Lead levels like those observed in Beethoven are commonly linked with gastrointestinal distress, kidney and liver disease and decreased hearing, all of which afflicted the influential composer. High levels of the toxic metal are also associated with other traits Beethoven is known for—a short temper, memory lapses and chronic clumsiness.
The scientists describe their findings in a letter to the editor published Monday in the journal Clinical Chemistry as one of Beethoven’s masterpieces celebrates a milestone. Two hundred years ago on May 7, the composer’s Ninth Symphony, which culminates in the triumphant “Ode to Joy,” was first performed in Vienna.
The results of the research are noteworthy given the enduring fascination with the German composer and pianist and the wide speculation about what led to his death in 1827 at age 56. In 1802, in a document known as the Heiligenstadt Testament, Beethoven requested that the cause of his illness be described and made public after he died. Since then, medical experts have offered many hypotheses for what led to his demise, including a number of inherited conditions and cirrhosis of the liver.
The latest research also showed heightened levels of arsenic and mercury levels in Beethoven’s hair. But it’s the lead that stands out for its close correlation to Beethoven’s health problems and the clues it could offer into what caused them.
The two authenticated locks of Beethoven's hair that revealed high levels of lead, arsenic and ... [+]
The new finding isn’t the first to suggest that Beethoven suffered from lead poisoning.
In the year 2000, researchers identified exorbitantly high levels of lead in hair thought to belong to Beethoven, and surmised that the toxicity had killed him. But further analysis of that hair sample revealed that it belonged to someone else, a woman with genes found in populations of Ashkenazic Jews.
The latest assertion that Beethoven had lead poisoning, however, results from the analysis of two snippets of hair authenticated as his as part of a landmark genomic sequencing of the composer published last year by a team of international researchers. Studying eight locks of his hair, they discovered, among other things, that Beethoven had a predisposition for liver disease and had been infected with hepatitis B. Rifai’s team studied the hair using mass spectrometry, a technique used to measure the mass-to-charge ratio of ions.
Who Saved The Composer’s Hair?
As Beethoven’s health declined toward the end of his life, it wasn’t uncommon for friends, admirers and acolytes to request a snip of his gray and dark brown hair as a keepsake. Some of these valuable surviving locks from almost 200 years ago ended up in public institutions such as the Library of Congress, which houses 26 snippets, while others landed in private collections.
Some strands even got named after those who procured them. One of the strands examined by Rifai’s team, for example, is known as the Halm-Thayer Lock. The composer evidently gave the lock to pianist Anton Halm in 1826. Alexander Wheelock Thayer, who wrote the first scholarly biography of Beethoven, later acquired it.
Kevin Brown, an Australian businessman and corresponding board member of the American Beethoven Society, owns both the Halm-Thayer Lock and the other snippet of hair used in the study, the Bermann Lock. His science background, along with Beethoven’s wish that his be studied posthumously, convinced Brown to get involved with the gene sequencing.
Likely Causes Of High Lead In Beethoven
Past studies of lead toxicity around the time Beethoven lived suggest the composer may have imbibed the metal through cheap wine sweetened or preserved with it or fermented in leaded containers (by all accounts, Beethoven loved a good tipple). Beethoven could also have been prescribed medicines and ointments containing lead.
With the genomic confirmation of the hair samples belonging to Beethoven, the lead analysis is essentially definitive, said Ivan Kempson, an associate professor of biophysics at the University of South Australia who was not involved with the research. What’s less certain, he added in an interview, is how the levels in his hair correspond to those in his blood.
“There are major challenges in correlating lead in hair with blood,” Kempson said. “We have analyzed the hair of lead smelter workers and found there is too much contamination, unable to be removed from washing, to be able to infer blood lead concentrations. There are also several personal traits which can greatly affect the lead uptake—hair color for example, which influences how much lead enters the hair from either blood or external contamination.”
In their letter, the researchers also note that hair analysis is subject to error from external lead contamination, but add that Beethoven didn’t color his hair and that the team followed a method consistent with that recommended by the Society of Hair Testing. The suggested safeguards include use of aqueous solvents with detergent to remove external contaminants.
Regardless, both Kempson and the researchers say the confirmation of lead poisoning represents an intriguing addition to our knowledge of the legendary artist.
“We believe this is an important piece of a complex puzzle,” the letter reads, “and will enable historians, physicians and scientists to better understand the medical history of the great composer.”
